Money: A Story of Humanity

13 hrs. 29 min.

Educational

Language Russian

Author David McWilliams

Narrator Alexey Voskoboynikov

Description

Irish economist David McWilliams shows how the development of humanity is inseparable from the history of money—from Mesopotamian clay tablets to today’s cryptocurrencies. No invention has influenced the path of Homo sapiens as powerfully and comprehensively as money. And yet, even though money determines our decisions and way of life, many people truly don’t understand what money is and how it works: how it comes into being, what its total volume is, and who actually controls it.

Money permeates all areas of human life—from power and wars to culture and art. Silver tetradrachms helped the Greek world spread across the Mediterranean, while Roman power relied heavily on credit. Florentine bankers sparked the Italian Renaissance, and one of the darkest phenomena in European history—colonialism—became possible thanks to the rise of joint-stock companies. The story of money turns out to be the story of the most curious, inventive, and—at the same time—dangerous kind of creature on the planet: us.