If you ever wonder quite how often financial history can repeat itself before we get some kind of a long term grip on global economics, you might consider some New Year reading in the form of Sean Corrigan's book Santayana's Curse.
In it, he relates the early history of modern money, invented in China. It started as a medium of exchange between merchants, but swiftly attracted the attention of the state. By the 1020s the state had given itself the sole right to issue paper notes (which were woodblock printed).
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