Volume

Carlo de Carolis

Value from Nothing

A History of Money and Debt, from the Barleycorn to Programmable Money

Year
2026
Disciplines
storia economicaeconomia
Level
Introductory
Status
Draft
Version
0.1.0
License
CC BY-SA 4.0
Contents
15 chapters
  1. 00 Preface Why tell the story of money
  2. 01 Before Money: The Debt Mesopotamia, the myth of barter and the origins of credit
  3. 02 The Birth of Coinage Lydia, Greece, Rome and money guaranteed by the state
  4. 03 Faith, Usury and Credit in the Middle Ages The ban on interest and the invention of finance
  5. 04 The Renaissance Bankers The Medici, the Fugger and the invention of modern banking
  6. 05 Gold, Silver and the New World Potosí, the price revolution and the first global economy
  7. 06 Paper and Trust: The First Bubbles Tulips, Amsterdam, John Law and the South Sea Bubble
  8. 07 The Birth of Central Banks The Bank of England and the lender of last resort
  9. 08 The Gold Standard and Its Fall From the golden age of gold to Bretton Woods
  10. 09 The Fiat Era and Inflation Nixon 1971, stagflation and the Volcker shock
  11. 10 Sovereign Debt and Crises Eight centuries of financial folly, up to 2008
  12. 11 Money Becomes Code From Satoshi Nakamoto to decentralised money
  13. 12 The Future of Money CBDCs, de-dollarisation and the questions that remain
  14. 13 A Chronology of Money Dates and turning points, from the clay tablet to programmable money
  15. BIB Bibliography Cited sources and paths for further reading