A Brief History of Central Banking: How the Quest for Financial Stability Led to Unconventional Monetary Practices

Central banks wield extraordinary power, yet most people know little about their evolution or how they help shape the world economy. That's about to change with this brief history.

As a key building block of modern society, central banks have influenced the actions of governments and individuals for hundreds of years, allowing nations like the US and UK to gain financial security and rise to prominence on the world’s stage, and saving Western civilization from collapse.

But they’re largely misunderstood—and it doesn’t help that so many myths and conspiracy theories exist. Most people don’t know where the idea of central banking came from, its role in the history of our modern world, and the way it’s still shaping international events and policies today.

This book explores the journey of central banking from ancient to modern times: covering the major events, challenges, and innovations that had a hand in its development. Concise yet informative, it explains the forces that shaped central banking and the role it plays in our everyday lives, including

How modern Europe transformed ancient banking practices to create central banking
How central banking proved instrumental in saving Western civilization during the Great Depression
How unconventional practices like quantitative easing and negative interest rates entered the mix
How challenges and innovations like populism, globalization, and digital currencies are changing the world of central banking
How some of the most pervasive central banking conspiracy theories started and why they still persist today
How central banking operates as a bedrock of our modern global economy
And much more.