Money and Market: Past and Present

Catalog description

What was money in antiquity? What is money today? What is market? This course explores the history of a revolutionary socio-economic phenomenon from its birth until today. The students will analyze economic concepts related to currency and exchange, and investigate how these concepts are used in the study of textual, archaeological, and visual evidence to reconstruct the economic life of ancient and modern cultures in China, Central Asia, the Near East, the Mediterranean, and the rest of the world. What were the earliest forms of money? Which social processes led to the creation of money? What were the institutions that issued money? Are there significant differences between ancient and modern monetized economies? Who are the prominent actors in determining the nature of market life and how do they assert their authority in textual and visual evidence? What are the visual devices for building public trust in fiscal policies? The material of study includes archaeological evidence (coins), visual material, decrees by ancient and modern rulers, philosophical and legal discourse on money and market (Plato’s Republic), and discussions by modern authors and anthropologists from Adam Smith and Bronisław Malinowski on exchange systems to Nathaniel Popper on cryptocurrencies.