The Love of Money

Discusses the emergence of money as ancient trading broadened and became more complex and barter became inadequate. Examines history's first surge of coinage from the stamped nuggets of electrum used at Sardis to the dominance of the denarius throughout the far-flung Roman Empire. Looks at the rise of the Agora in Athens as a locus for commerce and information, the effects of Roman law on trade, and the massive limestone currency used on the Micronesian island of Yap.