In the past, when trying to explain how our ancestors developed, we have often focused on a source of energy or a physical technology that aided their progress – for example, the invention of the wheel, the discovery of coal or the arrival of the plough. But what about the social technologies that helped organise us in pursuit of common goals by

This means that the shekel was liquid. Unlike something that was illiquid, such as property, its value was easy to unlock and transfer. It

money is abstract and is only given value as long as the rest of us (or enough of the rest of us) believe in it. Money, like faith, is a product of the human imagination.

Counterintuitively, money is valuable not when it is scarce but when it is abundant. In this sense, money resembles another wondrous human technology: language. Both money and language are crowd phenomena. Like language, the more people who use money, the more valuable it becomes.

Money is a force that dictates the flow of people, goods and ideas around the globe. Our efforts and talents are assessed by it; so too is the future.

The gist of his argument is this: where money – and financial innovation – is present, all sorts of valuable stuff occurs that doesn’t occur where money – and financial innovation – is absent.

Money buys freedom: the essential promise which makes it so attractive is that, armed with money, you can change your world by gaining more control over your life.

The rate of interest isn’t merely a price; it is also a code, a mini-encyclopaedia of information about the person we are lending to, the chances of success, the risk in the region, the competition in the market, the technological infrastructure, and a whole host of other variables.

If society is based on a rigid caste system, it’s easy to rule. Terror is a dominant tool of control and institutions and religions tend to be based around fear and strictures. In a society mediated by money, where social status is somewhat mobile, rationality gains prominence over emotion and hard thinking challenges rule following.9