Money: A History
Michael Collins deals with two publications on financial history.
- Money: A History edited by Jonathan Williams (British Museum Press 256 pp.)
- The Great Wave by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press xvi + 536 pp.)
Both these handsome volumes are stimulating, colourful and accessible to a wide readership, but in very different ways. The two deal with money and financial matters over long periods of history yet their subject matter and styles of presentation differ markedly.
Money: A History has been published to mark the opening of the HSBC Money Gallery at the British Museum. In it, the specialist coins and medal curators of the Museum have produced an authoritative history of money over four millennia and across different cultures. The focus is on the physical form of money – composition, design, production and appearance – although the authors conscientiously provide sufficient detail on the politico-economic background of the societies in which such money was produced.
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