John Kenneth Galbraith's brilliant and challenging account of monetary history has been completely updated to include the major developments of the last two decades. With great style and erudition he traces the beginnings of money in the ancient world through the rise of banking and such institutions as the Bank of England to the early speculative fevers of the eighteenth century and the economic challenges of the newly formed United States.
Later chapters deal with the Great Crash, the advent of Keynesian fiscal policy and the financial dilemmas of our own time. He tackles fundamental issues such as the role of money in economic dynamics - are changes in the supply of money the cause or consequence of changes in economic activity? - and offers convincing evidence that 'The history of money is an impressive document on the misadventures and the more than occasional insanity in the management of monetary affairs'.
"An ingenious blend of a history of money and monetary institutions, with an analysis of money's changing role in the sum total of economic analysis and policy... written with Professor Galbraith's usual wit and elegance"
- Eric Roll, The Times Literary Supplement
"An original and brilliant economist... his delightful irreverence and his ability to put difficult concepts in simple and elegant language are much in evidence in this book... it should provide all budding monetarists with pleasurable instruction in the rise and fall of monetary policy"
- Robert Skidelsky, Spectator magazine
"Galbraith disdainfully dismisses myths and cliches surrounding money... he has written something noteworthy and written it elegantly"
- Woodrow Wyatt, Sunday Times
1. Money
2. Of Coins and Treasure
3. Banks
4. The Bank
5. Of Paper
6. An Instrument of Revolution
7. The Money War
8. The Great Compromise
9. The Price
10. The Impeccable System
11. The Fall
12. The Ultimate Inflation
13. The Self-Inflicted Wounds
14. When the Money Stopped
15. The Threat of the Impossible
16. The Coming of J.M. Keynes
17. War and the Next Lesson
18. Good Years: The Preparation
19. The New Economics at High Noon
20. Money and Politics
21. The 1980s and On
22. Afterword
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