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

Description

Money is a core feature in all discussions of economic crisis, as is clear from the debates about the responses of the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States to the 2008 economic crisis. This volume explores the role of money in economic performance, and focuses on how monetary systems have affected economic crises for the last 4,000 years. Recent events have confirmed that money is only a useful tool in economic exchange if it is trusted, and this is a concept that this text explores in depth. The international panel of experts assembled here offers a long-range perspective, from ancient Assyria to modern societies in Europe, China and the US. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of economic history, and to anyone who seeks to understand the economic crises of recent decades, and place them in a wider historical context. 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