Financing the World

The third book by Keith Hollender on financial history, Financing the World focuses on the events and entrepreneurs that shaped the world of finance we know today. It describes the period of initial industrialization and the regular stock market crashes that accompanied it, in a concise and interesting style aimed at both the novice and the expert. Tales of financial skullduggery, innovation and the people behind it all are lucidly and amusingly set out.

It covers the time when superbly printed bonds and share certificates were the norm and, as such, have become collectors' items - sections on how to build a collection, many signed by the famous and infamous, are included.

There are few books covering financial history from the perspective of the essential paper used to raise funds for some of the greatest projects affecting our lives today: the building of the railways, mining, financing of the American Civil War and the rebuilding of Germany after the Second World War, which are most clearly portrayed through the paper issued to fund them.

Financing the World is a fine history of the development of international finance, demonstrating that little is new and much can be learned from the past - essential reading for today's financier and collectors at large.