Readings on money and history
Newton on the trail of counterfeiters, a silver coin that crossed the sea. Each piece reads the history of money through a single story.
The Wealth of the Realm, and a Handful of Earth
The edict declaring "All the wealth of the realm is mine" continues immediately with "even a handful of earth is welcome." In an age when the country was exhausted by plague and rebellion, copper was gathered to construct the Great Buddha.
The Trading Companies That Moved Nations with Invisible Strings
In the 19th century, certain trading companies financed wars and were involved in establishing banks in emerging nations. Born from a system of shared losses, these companies sometimes became powerful enough to move nations, wielding more influence than kings.
A Coin That Lived for 317 Years
In 1668, a single coin born in Kameido, Edo, brought an end to the era of imported coins. This coin would survive famines and continue to be legal tender in Japan until the Shōwa era.
The Day a Creditor Nation Became a Debtor
One hundred million guldens. That number, written on the treaty paper, summed up in a single line the fall of a nation that had once lent money to the courts of Europe.
Gulden, the Name of a Coin That Was Once an Adjective
Originally an adjective meaning 'golden,' the name Gulden detached from its metallic origin, eventually becoming a unit of account in ledgers and shaping the history of a currency.
Waiting for the War to End, While Printing Counterfeit Money
Adolf Burger, a printer forced to forge British pound notes in a Nazi concentration camp. We trace the inside of Operation Bernhard through his own testimony and the records of museums and research.
The Country That Minted Them and the Country That Used Them
Yongle Tongbao coins were minted in Ming China, but hardly circulated within the country. There was a country that minted coins for export which it did not use itself, and a country that did not mint its own coins but used imported ones as its standard.
The Mint Opened by a Usurper
In 2010, 52,503 Roman coins emerged from British soil. This enormous hoard tells the story of an era when a usurper used coinage as a tool of governance and opened the first mint in London.
A System for Sharing Risk and Sharing Profit
On voyages where some ships might not return, a system for sharing risk was needed. Investing a little in one ship, and spreading investments across many. This idea would later form the backbone of the joint-stock company and grow into a pillar of modern finance.
A Coin Born the Year Before the Rebellion
The shogunate began minting the domestic Kan'ei Tsūhō coin the year before the Shimabara Rebellion. In an age when the bodies of those unable to pay taxes became collateral, a domestic coin was created for the first time in 678 years.
Man of Equations, Man of Evidence
Isaac Newton, the discoverer of universal gravitation, was also an official at the Mint. The same man who calculated the motions of celestial bodies disguised himself, slipped into taverns, and sought evidence to corner counterfeiters.
The Coinage Act as a Standard
Even after the United States was born, the silver coins of other countries continued to be legal tender. A law that has the power to define and change a country's monetary system is a coinage act.
Silver Coins Valued by Weight, and a Realm Moved by Gold
The Keichō Chōgin, which had no face value, was valued directly by its weight on a scale. In the era when this silver coin was created, gold and silver shook faiths, gathered a hundred thousand soldiers, and decided the fate of castles.
The Men Who Seized Taxes Instead of Minting Coins
In 939, Taira no Masakado burned the provincial capital of Hitachi and seized its official seals. This amounted to seizing control over the province's tax administration. Even this man, who declared a new state, shows no evidence of having minted his own coins.
Silver Summoned by the Loom: Woollen Textiles and Coinage of Flanders
Weaving wool that arrived from across the sea, the cities of Flanders grew rapidly. The ceaselessly working looms summoned not only thread but also silver, and eventually, large silver coins were struck.
The Gold Coin that Financed a War: The Napoleon
Napoleon did not print paper money to cover war expenses. Instead, his financial resources were the war itself and the metals collected from conquered lands. The gold the Emperor desired took the form of a single gold coin.
The Melted Throne and the Wallet of War
In 1689, Louis XIV melted down the silver furniture that adorned the Palace of Versailles to pay for his war. His throne, covered with silver plaques and sculptures, was among the pieces.
Money Counted in 12s and 20s
In 1971, a method of counting money that had persisted in Britain for over a thousand years came to an end. One pound was twenty shillings, and one shilling was twelve pence. The origin of this complex system of accounting was on the continent, across the sea.
Currency Carried by Merchants to a Land That Had Abandoned Coins
After the Kengen Taihō, the Imperial Court ceased minting coins. In the 12th century, merchants from Hakata began importing Song dynasty coins to this island, where payments had been made in silk and rice. It was not the will of the state, but calculations of profit and loss that reshaped the nature of currency.
A Kingdom That Created Wealth with Paper, and Was Burned by Paper
A gambler who stabbed a man in a duel and was sentenced to death took control of France's finances. His idea that increasing paper money would stimulate the economy threw the country into a frenzy, eventually leaving long-lasting after-effects.
The Lion Silver Coin that Carried a Name
A landmark of New York, Wall Street. Its name originates from a defensive wall built by the Dutch. The name of the dollar we use also crossed the sea, by way of the Dutch language.
The Silver Coin Engraved with a Dragon, and War Expenses Paid with Paper
The dragon engraved on this 38.6 mm diameter silver coin was highly praised even in Great Britain. However, in the era when this coin was born, stipends for the samurai class were converted into government bonds, and the costs of a civil war were paid with paper money.
The Indemnity That Never Reached Japan
The indemnity from the First Sino-Japanese War was a colossal sum, more than four times Japan's annual revenue. However, this money was never transported to Japan; it was received in London as a figure in a ledger.
The Crime of Debasement, and the Punishment of Death
The United States Coinage Act stipulated that if a mint official fraudulently debased the coinage, the punishment was death. Why did "fineness"—the proportion of precious metal in an alloy—carry such grave significance?
Paper Printed Beyond Its Promise
These banknotes were centered on the promise of exchange for a specified weight of coin. But they were printed in ever greater numbers to prop up share prices, until confidence collapsed. The assessment after the collapse did not reduce claims of 500 livres or less.
Who Financed the Meiji Restoration?
In the seventh year of the Ansei era, in an Edo where the Great Elder had been assassinated, the smallest koban in Japan was born. In this year, when political upheaval and currency debasement coincided, both the anti-shogunate and pro-shogunate forces needed money for their respective struggles. Where did that money come from?
The Promise of a Pension Received by a King
A pension was paid from the King of France to the King of England. It was a cross-border promise, different from a provision for old age. The same word also appears in history as a financial practice.
State Finances that Began with a King's Ransom
The gold écu, paid as a king's ransom, eventually became a symbol of the crowned king's authority, mobilizing taxes and wealth to end the war. A single coin was at the center of an era when the framework of the modern state was being formed.
Coins of Different Faces, but the Same Weight
An emperor of France, a king of Belgium, a goddess of Switzerland. Coins bearing different faces, words, and country names on one side circulated at equal value across borders. There was only one promise.
The City That Made an Emperor and Was Burned by a King
Antwerp, the place where Portuguese pepper met South German silver. This city mobilized funds for an imperial election, only to suffer plunder by soldiers after a king's suspension of payments.
The Rationale of 'Write 100, and It Becomes 100 Mon'
Its material value was equivalent to five or six one-mon coins. Yet its face value was one hundred mon. This oval coin, reminiscent of a koban, was created in the midst of a famine and would eventually be imitated by domains throughout the country.
Stable Coinage and a Bankrupt Kingdom
During the era of Louis XV, France's metallic currency remained stable for half a century, and trade grew. Yet, by the end of that same century, the kingdom was bankrupt. If the value of the currency was not changing, why did its finances collapse?
The Journey of the Daalder, the Silver Coin from a Valley's Name
The daalder was a silver coin born in the Netherlands. Disliked at home, it was circulated for foreign payments, eventually transforming into the "dollar" in English parlance. This is the story of how the name of a single valley became the name of a world currency.
The Door Opened by Nominal Currency for the Outflow of Koban
While people were starving to death in Osaka, the shogunate minted a silver coin to support its finances. The gap between this coin's face value and its intrinsic content would eventually open the door for the nation's gold to flow overseas.
A Promise Locked in a Vault, A Door That Never Opened
In 1917, the promise to exchange gold coins for banknotes was suspended. An economic boom born from the war in Europe created nouveaux riches and queues of people seeking rice, eventually leading to a long recession.
The Currency and Men Bearing the Name Frank
An inscription meaning 'King of the Franks' became the name of a currency. A great king established a silver system that lasted a thousand years, and a printer in a distant land supported the credit of paper money.
The Fate of Gold, Divided by Its Use
The Toyotomi faction converted the gold and silver left by Hideyoshi into military power, while Tokugawa Ieyasu established a monetary system valid throughout the country. This is the story of how gold and silver from the same era met completely opposite ends depending on how they were used.
The Rebellion that Began with an Account Book, and the Cannonballs Paid for with Rights
The rebellion began not with a sword, but with an account book. Under a daimyō said to have reported his 40,000-koku domain as 100,000 koku, the tax rate doubled. The bodies of those unable to pay were subjected to torture, and to quell the eventual uprising, foreign cannonballs were fired from the sea.
The Accounts of a Kingdom Facing South and Beyond the Sea
In the second half of the twelfth century, Castile struck gold coins with inscriptions entirely in Arabic. From this south-facing kingdom would later emerge the tax system imposed on the silver of the New World.
The Value of the Yen as Defined by the 20 Yen Gold Coin
The old 20 yen gold coin was the highest denomination established by the New Coinage Act. The value of this coin, which equated one yen to 1.5 grams of pure gold, was halved in the 30th year of Meiji. Behind this was the war indemnity left in London.
Coinage Struck on Paper, the Promise of Leiden
In besieged Leiden, silver ran out, and coinage was struck from church books. What backed this paper, which had no metallic support, was a single promise: that if the city survived, it would be redeemed for specie.
The Unit of Weight Called the Grain
The American silver dollar was defined as three hundred seventy-one and one-quarter grains. The Indian rupee is also described in grains. This is the story of a unit of weight that connects two coins from different countries and eras.
The Fate of Paper Inscribed with "Time Flies"
In the center, "FUGIO" (time flies) and a sundial; below it, "MIND YOUR BUSINESS." Printed to finance the War of Independence, the Continental currency, contrary to its motto, lost its value and left an idiom in the English language.
The Three No's and the Unpayable Bill
During the reign of Louis XVI, reformers pledged "no bankruptcy, no new taxes, no borrowing," supported a war with massive debt, and finally challenged the wall of privilege. While sound coinage maintained its standard, the state's finances were heading towards collapse.
How Inheritance Tax Prevented the Rise of Zaibatsu — 1905, 1945, 1950
A tax created to fund the Russo-Japanese War became, forty-five years later, a tax with a top rate of 90 percent. In between lies the dissolution of the headquarters of four zaibatsu. We will examine this through three key years.
The Coin of a Memory: Never Trust Paper
After John Law's bubble burst, French currency returned to metal. The écu of Louis XV was a symbol of stability that lasted for about half a century, yet during this time, the nation's finances were heading towards bankruptcy. In an age of stable coinage, something else was eroding the state.
The Cardinal's Purse and the Debased Copper Coin
After the Fronde ended, Mazarin left a personal fortune of about thirty-five million livres. Around the same time, the liard, a copper coin in the hands of the common people, was devalued to one-third of its face value in about a month.
The Gold Coin That Didn't Change for 500 Years
The Italian city-state of Venice did not change the standard of one of its gold coins for over five hundred years. In a period during which multiple dynasties rose and fell, why did this gold coin remain unchanged and see such widespread use?
The Sun King's Silver Coin and the Empty Treasury
A silver écu struck in 1690. The reforms of the Controller-General of Finances were supposed to have brought the treasury a surplus. Why, then, did France grow poorer? We trace the history behind the minting of this silver coin.
The Coin on the Day the Rice Vanished
When famine swept the land, the single coin that sustained daily life reverted to mere metal. Amid rice riots, policymakers offered different answers. It was a question of circulation versus accumulation.
Tamperers of Scales, Clippers of Coins
“Debasement,” the practice of reminting coins with reduced precious metal content, brings short-term profits to the issuer but invariably leads to price chaos. It is a time when currency, which should represent integrity, becomes an object of anger.
Machine-Struck Credit: The Pillar Dollar
Two pillars topped by a crown flank two hemispheres. From a distorted lump of silver to a perfectly round coin. A single innovation applied to the edge provided a way to detect traces of clipping and built the foundation for worldwide credit.
Coins Struck by a Dead King
Even after their authority had vanished, why did people continue to strike the names of long-dead kings on their coins? It is because the trust in a currency outlived the power that created it.
History as Driven by Market Realities
The official value set by laws and agreements, and the true value indicated by the market. The discrepancy between these two can strip people of their wealth or carry precious metals across borders. This article traces the workings of these "market realities"—a force often unmentioned in historical sources.
A Silver Coin with No Place at Home
There was once a silver coin disliked in its homeland for its low fineness. Yet, precisely because it had no place to belong, it embarked on a journey, from the Eastern Mediterranean to North America, making its mark upon the world. This is the long journey of the silver coin that bore the lion.
The Emperor's Four Conduits for a War Fought with Metal
The emperor detested banknotes and demanded metal. This obsession led him to draw war funds from an enemy nation's banks, siphon wealth from conquered lands, and seize control of the bank itself. It was a financial system that functioned only by continuously winning.
Gold: A Single Promise
Paper banknotes could always be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold. This promise, believed in by the 19th-century world, was a system based on the premise that not everyone would doubt it at the same time. That premise collapsed with every war.
The Precision and Beauty of Machine-Struck Gold Coins
The Louis d'or, a gold coin born in 1640. Its perfect circular shape, struck by machine, was intended to make it immediately obvious if someone clipped the edges to steal gold. We trace the precision, beauty, and the hidden side of wealth creation embodied in a single coin.
A Face on the Silver, Gold in the Coffer
For the first time, a realistic profile of the king appeared on French coinage. This declaration of royal authority, which began with a single silver coin, would eventually lead to a ransom for a lost war and funding for a brilliant culture.
The phrase "Worth as much as Potosí"
Potosí, a silver mine in South America, became a byword for "immense wealth." Its silver travelled the world and moved history, but for the land where it was mined, it left not riches, but countless deaths.
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