Table Of ContentN I A LL
F E R G U S ON
Author of
T HE W AR OF T HE W O R LD
T HE A S C E NT
OF M O N EY
A F I N A N C I AL H I S T O RY of T HE W O R LD
U.S. $29.95
Canada $33.00
Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot: Call it what you like,
it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all
evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolu
tionaries, it's the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of
Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact
the foundation of human progress. What's more, he
reveals financial history as the essential backstory
behind all history.
The evolution of credit and debt was as impor
tant as any technological innovation in the rise of
civilization, from ancient Babylon to the silver mines
of Bolivia. Banks provided the material basis for the
splendors of the Italian Renaissance while the bond
market was the decisive factor in conflicts from the
Seven Years' War to the American Civil War.
With the clarity and verve for which he is
known, Ferguson explains why the origins of the
French Revolution lie in a stock market bubble
caused by a convicted Scots murderer. He shows
how financial failure turned Argentina from the
world's sixth richest country into an inflation-
ridden basket case—and how a financial revolution
is propelling the world's most populous country
from poverty to power in a single generation.
Yet the most important lesson of the financial
history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts
—sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the
bullish buyers, sooner or later greed flips into fear.
And that's why, whether you're scraping by or rolling
in it, there's never been a better time to understand
the ascent of money.
1108
Niall Ferguson is one of Britain's most renowned
historians. He is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of
History at Harvard University, a Senior Research
Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a
Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford
University. The bestselling author of Paper and Iron,
The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash
Nexus, Empire, Colossus and The War of the World, he
also writes regularly for newspapers and magazines
all over the world. He has written and presented four
highly successful television documentary series for
Channel 4: Empire, American Colossus, The War of the
World and, most recently, The Ascent of Money. He, his
wife and three children divide their time between
the United Kingdom and the United States.
Jacket painting: Lais Corinthiaca, 1526 (oil on limewood),
by Hans Holbein the Younger, Offentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel,
Switzerland/The Bridgeman Art Library
The A MEMBER OF PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.
Penguin 375 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10014
Press www.penguin.com | Printed in U.S.A.
Praise for
THE WAR OF THE WORLD
Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
"A heartbreaking, serious and thoughtful survey of human evil that is utterly
fascinating and dramatic ... superb narrative history."
—Simon Sebag Montefiore, The New York Times Book Review
"Wielding at once the encyclopedic knowledge of an accomplished scholar and
the engaging prose of a master storyteller, Ferguson commendably brings fresh
insights to a history by now familiar.... A tour de force."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A fascinating read, thanks to Ferguson's gifts as a writer of clear, energetic
narrative history." —James F. Hodge, Jr., The Washington Post
Praise for
EMPIRE:
How Britain Made the Modern World
"Ferguson ... is a wonderfully fluent writer, weaving telling details and vivid
anecdotes seamlessly into his narrative.. . . Sure to be a chilling assertion to
both those in Washington eager to deny imperial ambitions and those in the
Arab world suspicious of America's motives."
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
'Fluently written, engaging, beautifully designed and spectacularly illustrated ...
Empire is a model of how to do popular history." —The Economist
"An entertaining, engaging romp through four centuries of British imperialism."
—Los Angeles Times
ISBN 978-1-59420-192-9
The Ascent of Money
ALSO BY NIALL FERGUSON
Paper and Iron
The House of Rothschild
The Pity of War
The Cash Nexus
Empire
Colossus
The War of the World
N I A LL F E R G U S ON
The Ascent
of Money
A Financial History of the World
The Penguin Press
New York
2008
THE PENGUIN PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,
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First published in 2008 by The Penguin Press,
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Copyright © Niall Ferguson, 2008
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-59420-192-9
Printed in the United States of America
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may
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Contents
Introduction i
1 Dreams of Avarice 17
2 Of Human Bondage 65
3 Blowing Bubbles 119
4 The Return of Risk 176
5 Safe as Houses 230
6 From Empire to Chimerica 283
Afterword: The Descent of Money 341
Acknowledgements 359
Notes 363
List of Illustrations 399
Index 403
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