Robert Pringle - The Power of Money: How Ideas about Money Shaped the Modern World

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Two individuals are owed a special debt of gratitude: Brendan Brown and Alessandro Roselli. Without their encouragement, this book might have been begun but would never have been completed. I have benefitted greatly from an almost continuous dialogue with each of them over many years. I should also thank them for reading chapters of the book in draft form and for their enlightening comments.

My former colleagues Graham Bannock and Alan Doran provided the spur to a much-needed reality check at an early stage in the writing process. Michael Bordo similarly provided helpful comments and suggestions. Peter Urbach read most of the book in draft and not only highlighted logical flaws in my reasoning at several points but also suggested numerous stylistic improvements in the text. My long-standing friendship and dialogue with Haruko Fukuda, another former colleague, has yielded many insights into recent changes in the world of banking and investment, not least its weird remuneration practices.

A special thanks to my interlocutors in an informal email study group on international monetary issuesWarren Coats, Joseph Potvin, Leanne Ussher and Larry White. Our exchanges over the past ten years have been a constant source of stimulus and delight.

Among other people from whom I have learnt much in the wide variety of fields covered in this book are the following: Claudio Borio, Forrest Capie, John Chown, Lyric Hughes Hale, Steve Hanke, David Harrison, Keith Hart, Ikuko Hiroe, Geoffrey Ingham, Tom Jupp, Martin Klosterfelde, Andrew McNally, Robert Mundell, Margaret ONeill, Hiroto Oonogi, Will Pringle, Hugh Sandeman, Judy Shelton, Andrew Sheng, Masaaki Shirakawa, Robert Spicer, Toshikazu Takei, Marc Uzan, Frank Vogl, Ryo Watabe, William White, Toyokuni Yamanaka and members of the Austerity Club. I honour the memory of the late Allan Meltzer, a great mentor and friend with whom I corresponded for many years and the late David Henderson who, over long lunches in Hampstead, supplied a brilliant, occasionally caustic yet always witty and constructive commentary on my evolving ideas.

The far-flung network of monetary economists, central bankers and commentators built up by Central Banking Publications has been invaluable. I have benefitted also from my regular contacts with Nick Carver, the publisher and Chris Jeffery, the editor, as well as other members of the staff and of the companys editorial advisory board.

A big thank you to Simon Blundell, Reform Club librarian, for maintaining a great library, for his skill in obtaining any book at lightning speed and for suggesting works that might be relevant to my research.

I inherited from my father, John Pringle, OBE, not only a passionate interest in civilisations past, present and future but also an unpublished manuscript outlining his reflections on science and human survival. I have drawn on this for the discussion of liberalism in Chap..

Books tend to be written by relatively successful people for relatively successful people. But that risks biasing the whole analysis. My fathers work at Rethink Mental Illness, the mental health charity that he founded in 1972, gave him special insight into the distress experienced by sufferers from severe mental illness and their families. Many sufferers are not simply relatively unsuccessful, by worldly standards, but may be quite unable to meet the demands of modern life. I hope that some sections of the text, notably in the discussion of Outsiders, benefit from his insights.