The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets

by William N. Goetzmann (Editor)

From the invention of interest in Mesopotamia and the origin of paper money in China, to the creation of mutual funds, inflation indexed bonds, and global financial securities, here is a sweeping survey of financial innovations that have changed the world.
Written by a distinguished group of experts including Robert Shiller, Niall Ferguson, Valerie Hansen, and many others and wonderfully illustrated with over one hundred color photographs of landmark financial documents (including the first paper money), The Origins of Value traces the evolution of finance through 4,000 years of history. Readers see how and why many of our most important financial tools and institutions loans, interest rates, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, the corporation, and the New York Stock Exchange, to name a few came into being. We see, for instance, how ancient Rome developed an early form of equity finance that resembles the modern corporation and read about the first modern corporation the Dutch East India Company and its innovative means of financing the exploration and expansion of European business ventures around the globe. We also meet remarkable financial innovators, such as the 13th century Italian Fibonacci of Pisa, whose mathematics of money became the foundation for later developments in the technology of Western European finance (and may explain why the West surpassed the East in financial sophistication). And we even discover a still surviving "perpetuity" dating from the Dutch Age of Reason an instrument that has been paying interest since the mid 17th century.
Placing our current age of financial revolution in fascinating historical perspective, The Origins of Value tells a remarkable story of invention, illuminating many key episodes in the course of financial history.

Genres: Economics, History, Finance, Nonfiction, Money

416 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Francisco Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great coffee table book
Highly recommended for generalists and specialists

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an edited collection of original papers on the history of financial innovations. It appears to have been a prelude to Goetzmann's recent book "Money Changes Everything". The authors are all top scholars, doing original research, and contributing chapters in this book about their work. The chapters all read well, which suggests that writing well is valued in this area and/or that Oxford has contributed some editing resources. Either way is fine with me.

The focus of the collection is on the earliest antecedents of the critical components of modern finance. Chapter topics deal with such topics as how ancient traders insured their cargoes and transactions, how futures markets developed, or where and why life annuity instruments developed. The topics parallel closely the topics in "Money Changes Everything" but with generally more detail and nuance. If a deeper dive is not of interest, Goetzmann's history will suffice. Some chapters are intriguing on their own terms, for example the chapters dealing with the origins of the NYSE and related US capital markets or the chapter dealing with bonds in the Belgian Congo.

Since the contributors are all historians, more or less, there is also lots of really interesting materials on source materials and evidentiary problems for these topical areas, complete with pictures of many of the instruments mentioned. I am a sucker for this sort of detail but it might not be for everybody.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

An illustrated tour of financial history

This beautifully illustrated coffee table book takes readers on a journey through the history of finance, with scenic stops to view the details of Babylonian loan agreements, the calligraphy of Chinese contracts, the currencies of John Law and even King Leopold II’s deathbed marriage to a prostitute. Numerous experts, including Niall Ferguson and Robert J. Shiller, contributed individual essays, so the style and general quality of the text varies from chapter to chapter. The cohesion of the overall content is to the credit of editors William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst. Currency-related art and photographs (more varied and noteworthy than you may think) dominates this cross section of financial history from the ancient Sumerians to the Silk Road to Versailles. getAbstract recommends this attractive volume to those interested in financial history and to any bank or brokerage that wants just the right book for visitors to peruse while waiting in the lobby.

[Heber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well researched and well written coffee-table book. Plenty of interesting historical annecdotes in the development of modern capital markets which go all the way back to the ancient Babylonians.

[Andreas Lyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed, covering in great detail shorter periods of financial history. I find it good for the nerd who is ready to go really in depth on history.

Has a lot of formulas, which doesn't make it good for an audiobook experience.

[Bryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a detailed history

[Neil Bourgeois · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good historical content but dry!