Making Money

This fascinating book offers an innovative approach to monetary history, by using the historical development of currency in England from the high middle ages to the nineteenth century to challenge the established theory of money and its role in the economyâ This book is an excellent contribution to the existing literature [âand] must also be considered an important contribution to fields such as law, economics, political science, and the history of economic ideas. * Paolo di Martino, The Economic History Review *
A closing sentence of Desan's Making Money encapsulates what I find truly extraordinary about her book: Arguably capitalism... constructed a money [based on] individual exchange for profit, institutionalizing that motive as the heart of productivity" ... In my view Desan's greatest contribution in Making Money is a clear explanation of how monetary reform set the stage for modern economic performance. * Carolyn Sissoko, Synthetic Assets *
This book is an obvious must for anyone interested in English history generally, and the history of money, banking or finance, or the legal history of these fields in particular. That much goes without saying. For historians of capitalism, it should be a lightning rod, attracting attention with a bold, unorthodox and analytically and historically compelling claim. * Roy Kreitner, Banking and Finance Law Review *
Making Money is an impressive work of scholarship that not only surveys many centuries of history, but also offers fresh insights into a topic so laden with assumptions and parables as to seem barely worth reexamination. The book is part legal analysis, part political and economic history, and part numismatics, and it is more representative of an interpretive essay than an encyclopedia of monetary history. * Bruce G. Carruthers, American Historical Review *
Christine Desans Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism. . . expands the limited theoretical interventions of myriad governance-view theorists into positive, empirical claims by telling the story of British money through law from the fall of Rome to the eighteenth-century financial revolution, and in so doing expands on them significantly. . . What Desan has given us, and earlier authors have not, is a thorough alternative, grounded in legal history, that, helpfully, includes an origin story for the orthodox account of moneys origins. Although some may continue to defend the orthodox conjectural history of money. . . they will be hard-pressed to do so on empirical grounds in light of Desans account. * Andrew David Edwards, Law and Social Inquiry *
Desan's singular achievement has been to not only synthesize a vast literature but to also produce a richly detailed, compelling, and original account of how the development of market commerce and capitalism was largely dependent upon the transformation of the ways in which people thought about and made their money. Needless to say this brief review in no way does justice to the narrative reconstruction, eye-watering detail, and historiographical engagement which will surely make Desan's text the definitive account for some time to come. * Simon Middleton, The Medieval Review *
Making Money is a fascinating story, full of both meticulous historical detail and compelling conceptual arguments about the relationship between forms of currency, political authority, and the creation of the modern state . . . thought-provoking like David Graebers Debt, but firmly grounded in the minutiae of English history. In these times when everyone from gold bugs (like Ted Cruz, lets not forget) to Bitcoin enthusiasts is calling for a redefinition of money, it reminds us what a complicated and politically determined thing money always has been. * James Kwak, The Baseline Scenario *
Christine Desans Making Money should be amongst the points of departure for analysis and reflection not beholden to the existing institutional structures and the interests served by such institutions...This insight elevates Desans book far above the kind of literature that cultivates a generalizing view of money, its current forms, and institutional settings as inevitable expressions of human nature. The conclusions from her contribution to the analysis of money are arguments for changing prevailing monetary regimes. Desan equips us with historical arguments for reinventing money. * Leopold Specht, International Journal of Constitutional Law *
Making Money contributes to . . . understanding [the popularity of cash] by providing a detailed and insightful narrative of how cash developed into the killer app of payment technologies. * William Roberds, Journal of Economic Literature *
[T]hose interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of money... Will find this book invaluable. [Desans] approach... Is essentially a new history and analysis of how money is made. * Katie Ball, Reviews in History *
Making Money will undoubtedly become an exemplary text in its field. It has a lot to offer... In sum, this book is of tremendous value and a notable text in legal history and within those subjects at the peripheries surrounding it. It sets a new path in challenging our ways of studying commercial law and viewing money and currency as a purely economic tool and as a mechanism of exchange. * Victoria Barnes, The Journal of Legal History *
The book is a great read, a page turner for economics mavens and maybe an epiphany for those who have not considered where their money comes from. * Andrew Allentuck, Financial Post *
Ms Desan displays exemplary scholarship in detailing money's origins... her study is worth the effort. * The Economist *
[In this book] A constitutional historian dives deep into the political economy of money in Englandfrom royal monopoly to joint creation with private investorsto illuminate how the means of exchange is in fact a form of governance and of social order * Harvard Magazine *
Christine Desan's Making Money is not only a fine monetary history of England. The 2014 book is relevant today. It shows cash and governments go together, the gold standard was a misnomer and central banking is political. And we should stop outsourcing money-creation to banks. * Edward Hadas, Breakingviews *