The Monkey and the Money: A History of Capitalism

On capitalism's long evolution from barter to today's global economy

Apes that exchange things. That is what we are. At some point around two million years ago, we discovered that we could exchange one thing for another. Since then, humans have continued trading and exchanging things throughout economic history. Clever humans also invented capital, which we used to shape our whole economic system. In this information-packed, entertaining, eye-opening book, Kjell A. Nordström guides us from the collaborative origins of prehistoric bartering to Adam Smith’s concept of specialization. He shows how we have used our endless inventiveness to transform our planet into a colossal, pulsating bazaar, where everyone is trading with one another all over the world, around the clock.
How did we end up here? And what does the future hold for our immense, complex global economy that has now started to appear vulnerable? Nordström provides hope that we will find new ways to continue our endless trading and exchanging. New ways that involve and take into account nature, our other vital source of capital: not created by us, but crucial to our well-being.
With The Monkey and the Money, Nordström aims to demystify economics and money. By providing insight into human ingenuity and perspectives based on that ingenuity, he helps us to understand and marvel at the vast, clever system that we call the economy. The book is illustrated by Patrik Instedt.
Kjell A. Nordström (born 1958) is an author and lecturer with a PhD in economics. He has previously published Funky Business (1999, cowritten with Jonas Ridderstråle) and Urban Express (2020, cowritten with Per Schlingmann).