Money: A Global History

We all use money, many of us struggle to find enough of it, whereas a few seem to have more than they will ever be able to spend. But do we really understand what it is? This day school sets out to explain.

The course is not a history of coinage, still less an introduction to Economics; rather it explores how world history has been shaped by the changing nature of money. We’ll discover how the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians managed without it and how coins were then simultaneously invented in China, India and the Mediterranean.  We’ll learn how inflation in China, the greed of the Conquistadores and the reimagining of money in England conspired together to change the world. Finally, we’ll explore what caused the Global Financial Crisis and discover why it’s still surprisingly easy to pay for the transition to a Zero Carbon future despite there being ‘no money left’.


Course Details

This course finished on 12 November 2022