ABSTRACT

Looking from the 11th century to the 20th century, Kuroda explores how money was used and how currencies evolved in transactions within local communities and in broader trade networks. The discussion covers Asia, Europe and Africa and highlights an impressive global interconnectedness in the pre-modern era as well as the modern age.

Drawing on a remarkable range of primary and secondary sources, Kuroda reveals that cash transactions were not confined to dealings between people occupying different roles in the division of labour (for example shopkeepers and farmers), rather that peasants were in fact great users of cash, even in transactions between themselves. The book presents a new categorization framework for aligning exchange transactions with money usage choices.

This fascinating monograph will be of great interest to advanced students and researchers of economic history, financial history, global history and monetary studies.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

part 1|48 pages

Exchanges generate money locally

chapter 1|26 pages

Peasants, marketplace and money

chapter 2|20 pages

Stagnant currencies and stratified markets

part 2|141 pages

A global history of monetary delocalization

chapter 3|49 pages

The ignition of monetary delocalization

An unexpected remnant of the Mongolian regime, c.1300

chapter 4|35 pages

The world diversified and stratified

Three paths after the global silver march, c.1600

chapter 5|44 pages

Nationalized money

Backstage of the international gold standard regime, c.1900

chapter |11 pages

Conclusion

Money as social circuit