Originally published in 1940, this book traces the development of theories concerning currency and credit from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. It provides a comprehensive account of the political and economic conditions in which the theories and controversies arose, with the result that the work has become a classic in its field.

Rist traces the development of theories concerning currency and credit from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the 1940s. He combines his unsurpassed knowledge of the subject with a comprehensive account of the economic conditions in which the theories and controversies arose. Using simple and clear language, Rist does much to dispel the dull image of currency and credit analysis.

In 1913 and 1914, A. Mitchell Innes published a pair of articles that stand as two of the best pieces written in the twentieth century on the nature of money. Only recently rediscovered, these articles are reprinted and analyzed here for the first time.

This book provides a comprehensive survey of the major developments in monetary theory and policy from David Hume and Adam Smith to Walter Bagehot and Knut Wicksell. In particular, it seeks to explain why it took so long for a theory of central banking to penetrate mainstream thought. The book investigates how major monetary theorists understood the roles of the invisible and visible hands in money, credit and banking; what they thought about rules and discretion and the role played by commodity-money in their conceptualizations; whether or not they distinguished between the two different roles carried out via the financial system - making payments efficiently within the exchange process and facilitating intermediation in the capital market; how they perceived the influence of the monetary system on macroeconomic aggregates such as the price level, output and accumulation of wealth; and finally, what they thought about monetary policy.

"[What is Money? and The Credit Theory of Money is] the best pair of articles on the nature of money written in the twentieth century." -L. Randall Wray, professor of Economics, Bard College (2004) The Credit Theory of Money (1914) is one of two important articles written by British economist Alfred Mitchell-Innes about money and credit. Together with Mitchell-Innes' other article, What is Money? (also available from Cosimo Classics), it influenced Modern Monetary Theory, which states that governments can print as much money as they need without having to borrow or tax to finance spending. The Credit Theory of Money is essential reading for students of monetary theories and economic history.