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For millenia, the social and economic organization of the majority of civilizations was built on the basis of bartering goods, then trade, and, closeer to us, finance. The unshakeable bond which associates a good with its exchange value - and with the currency which symbolizes it – shaped human relations. So what is the origin of this power and this interdependence, which is after nothing more than a social convention, a simple unit of account or payment?
Basing his work on the theses of the most eminent historians, economist Jeanne-Marie Viel traces a general history of merchant society, from the Sumerian civilization to contemporary society.
- How was barter exchange originally born, of a particular form of the social language, and how was it gradually transformed into trade?
- How did commercial logic flower from the Middle Ages to the start of the 19th century ?
- How, since the industrial era, have the banking sector and the development of financial markets so thoroughly imposed their power?
This enthralling essay, which leads us down the centuries and across civilizations, proposes a whole methodical analysis of the excesses and the faults with which our merchant societies have gradually impregnated themselves.
It sets out all the factors needed for a better understanding of how these distortions have come about and encourages us to reflect on the means for curing them.