History

The Fourth Age of Man: the Network Age Part of the reason for talking about the history of money in depth this week is as a backdrop to what is happening today.  Money originated as a control mechanism for governments of Ancient Sumer to control farmers, based upon shared beliefs.  It was then structured during…

The Third Age: The Industrial Revolution The use of money as a means of value exchange, alongside barter, lasted for hundreds of years or, to be more exact, about 4,700 years.  During this time, beads, tokens, silver, gold and other commodities were used as money, as well as melted iron and other materials. Perhaps the…

The Second Age of Man: The Invention of Money I’ve blogged about money being invented for sex many times before but hey, it’s a good story, so I’m going to again. So man became civilized and dominant by being able to work in groups of hundreds.  This was unique to homo sapiens form of communication, as…

As you all know now, this week sees the release of my new book ValueWeb.  Yes, you can buy it from today on Amazon or any of the other services you use.  It’s released in UK from March 15, and USA from April 7 (this is due to publisher getting hard copies to distributors before it…

Few of us can forget the terrible attack on Paris in November.  When the Paris attacks took place at the end of last year, I was lucky enough to visit Paris a couple of days later for the annual CARTES conference event. Some firms had pulled out last minute for fear of further attacks, but…

Yesterday was the Bank of England’s 321st birthday.  Created on 27th July 1694, the Bank – as it’s referred to in shortened form – is one of the oldest Central Banks in the world.  It is not the oldest though.  That accolade falls to the Central Bank of Sweden, the Riksbank, created in 1668, although…

In most science fiction movies, there is no money.  The Hollywood visions of the future have wiped out the need for cash, and I’ve blogged before about Gene Roddenberry’s views on money in Star Trek:  “Money is a terrible thing”.  His idea is that money will disappear as we approach space and, as we send rockets…

I’m such a sad banking geek that in my two hours off here in Seoul I ran around to the Bank of Korea’s Money Museum.  Yes, I really am that sad but hey, it was near the hotel and the only thing I could do within walking distance apart from shopping.  Yes, I really am…

Having spent some time talking about life 700 years ago, you relaise that some things stay constant.  The inter-twining between where the powerbase lies and finance is always a close tie.  Back in the Medici era, it was the Vatican and Pope, the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire that enabled the Medici’s to…