Money, Currency and Crisis: In Search of Trust, 2000 BC to AD 2000

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Preface and acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Money and trust
	Introduction
	The origins of money
	Trust
	Monetary institutions
	Structure of the book
	Notes
	References
Chapter 2 Six monetary functions over five millennia: A price theory of monies
	Disaggregation of monies in global history
	Aggregating monies: Some historical examples
	Six monetary functions over five millennia
	How do these functions work in mainstream economic theory?
	A price theory of monies
	Trust and disaggregation
	Conclusion: Appraisal and outlook
	Notes
	References
Chapter 3 Unproductive debt causes crisis: Connecting the history of money to the current crisis
	Introduction
	Point of departure: The credit and state theories of money
	Crises are caused by debt
	Differentiating debt
	The uses of credit
	Positive feedback: The link between debt for assets and crisis
	Conclusion
	Appendix 3.1
	Notes
	References
Chapter 4 Deep monetization in Eurasia in the long run
	Questions and concepts
	Scholarly attempts to determine the demand for small change
	An overall picture of monetization at the end of the nineteenth century
	DMLs in Western Europe in the long run: England, the Low Countries, and France
	India
	China and Japan
	Conclusions
	Appendix 4.1. Deep monetization levels in various countries in the 1870s–80s
	Notes
	References
Chapter 5 Money, silver and trust in Mesopotamia
	Introduction: The magic of silver – Bert van der Spek
	The Old Assyrian period (2000–1700 bc) – Jan Gerrit Dercksen
	The Old Babylonian period (nineteenth to seventeenth centuries bc) – Michael Jursa
	The Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1500–1155 bc) – Kristin Kleber
	The first millennium BC – Michael Jursa
	Concluding remarks – Bert van der Spek
	Notes
	References
Chapter 6 Introducing coinage: Comparing the Greek world, the Near East and China
	Introduction
	The introduction of coinage in Asia Minor and the Greek World
	The introduction of coinage in the Near East by Alexander the Great
	The introduction of coinage in China
	The role of trust
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 7 The introduction of coinage in the Seleucid Empire and the Euro in the European Union: A comparison of stock and velocity
	Introduction
	Introduction of silver and bronze coinage in the Middle East
	Monetization in the Seleucid Empire and the Euro Zone
	Velocity of money: A speed of diffusion approach
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 8 Monetary policy in the Roman Empire
	Introduction
	Roman conceptions of money and coinage
	Inflation
	The character of the coinage
	Debasements and stability
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 9 Money in England from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century
	Introduction
	Nominalism
	Actual and theoretical intrinsic content of currency
	The variable value of silver
	Conversion to silver weight unnecessary
	Primacy of the underlying data
	Nominal price and wage data in Strasbourg and China
	Monetary policy
	Additional note
	Notes
	References
Chapter 10 Incentives and interests: Monetary policy, public debt, and default in Holland, c. 1466–1489
	Introduction
	An introduction to monetary policy in the fifteenth century
	Reducing debt by specifying interest payments to be in silver coin
	Speculation of towns
	Conclusion
	Appendix 10.1 Payment techniques, annuities fifteenth century
	Notes
	Bibliography
Chapter 11 Enter the ghost: Cashless payments in the early modern Low Countries, 1500–1800
	Introduction
	Cash
	Money of account
	Creating money
	Cash and credit
	Cash, credit, and debt in probate records
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
Chapter 12 Paper money in Song-Yuan China
	Introduction
	Basic characteristics of the Chinese monetary system
	The origins of negotiable paper instruments in China
	The invention of paper currency
	Paper currency under Mongol rule
	Paper money and Chinese monetary theory
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 13 Stagnation is silver, but growth is gold: China’s silver period, circa 1430–1935
	Introduction
	The (lack of) silver famines and the stock of money in circulation
	Monetization and the demand for silver
	In silver we trust?
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 14 Confronting financial crises under different monetary regimes: Spain in the Great Depression years
	Introduction
	Spain on silver
	Two institutional constraints
	The Spanish economy in the twenties and thirties
	The Bank of Spain intervention in the crisis: A successful lender of last resort to preserve confidence in the currency
	Carner’s exchange rate policy: Short but successful
	The possible effects of world recession in Spain
	A comparison with the euro crisis
	Conclusion
	Appendix 14.1 Tables on monetary effect on the real economy
	Notes
	References
Chapter 15 Money: The long twentieth century
	The gold standard versus bimetallism
	The experiences of three countries up to the First World War
	The gold standard collapse
	The Bretton Woods system
	What about gold, now?
	The euro
	What ‘money’ is and why crypto-currencies are not ‘money’
	Notes
	References
Chaper 16 Conclusion: In search of trust
	Introduction
	The rise and complexity of monetary institutions
	In search of trust
	Monetary policy
	Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Index
Currencies and coins