Money: The Unauthorised Biography by Felix Martin

Felix Martin’s Money: The Unauthorised Biography is more than just an attempt to chart the history of money from its ambiguous origins to the elaborate world of finance today. Motivated by the great calamities that have bedevilled the global economy in recent years, Martin endeavours to recreate the way we perceive money through both a historical narrative and contemporary analysis.

The book begins with the fascinating case of Yap, a remote island in Micronesia that managed to construct a highly developed system of debt and credit that mirrors our own. Underlying Yap is Martin’s central argument that money should be viewed not as a ‘thing’ or a mere medium of exchange, but as a social technology.

From Yap, Martin meanders back and forth throughout history. He describes the origins of numeracy and literacy in Ancient Mesopotamia, explores merchant banking in sixteenth-century Lyons, and examines both the Soviet Union’s and the Spartans’ attempts to fundamentally reshape the idea of money. What makes this book so compelling is the author’s ability to draw upon a variety of seemingly unrelated theorists and historical events. In doing so, he demonstrates how the financial world of today came to be, and how that world has become crippled by debt and uncertainty.

Of course, Money culminates in the current global crisis, where Martin makes his most pertinent contributions to the discourse of our wounded financial system. He challenges flawed assumptions underpinning our system and describes alternatives. But, ultimately, Martin’s greatest observation echoes that of Larry Summers and an emerging group of prominent economists and academics. Much can be learnt about our present crisis by examining the past.

Martin’s work is considerably complex yet undeniably provocative. But then again, any attempt to redefine the concept of money needs to be.


Dexter Gillman is a freelance reviewer.