Description
Book SynopsisThe end of the Cold War put the planet on a new track, abruptly replacing the familiar world of bipolarity, red phones, and intercontinental ballistic missiles with the strange new world of the Internet, e-commerce, and Palm Pilots. The New World Order was defined by a U.S.-led war against Iraq, bloody ethnic strife in Bosnia and Rwanda, and religious turmoil in Central Asia. This evolving global system, however, overlooked the powerful role of credit, which functions as a critical building block for developing greater national and individual wealth. This volume examines the evolution of credit in the Western world and its relationship to power. Spanning several centuries of human endeavor. it focuses on Western Europe and the United States and also considers how the Western system became the global credit system. Six major themes run throughout: (1) the direct relationship between credit and power; (2) different kinds of political power promote different kinds of economic behavior; (3
Table of Contents1: Introduction; 1: Introduction; 2: Early Pre-Modern Credit Period; 2: The Ancient Mediterranean World; 3: Byzantine Christians and Muslims; 4: The Jewish Bridge; 3: Early Modern Credit Period; 5: Trade Fairs and The Knights Templar; 6: The Italians and Credit; 4: Modern Credit Period; 7: Credit Goes North: The Road to Amsterdam; 8: Finance in the Age of British Power; 9: Continental Echoes; 10: The Rise of U.S. Power and Credit; 11: The Democratization of Credit; 12: Challenges to the U.S.-Dominated Credit System; 13: Globalized Markets; 14: Conclusion: New Frontiers
