Vice is the true father of Western capitalism, according to Ian Klaus in this fascinating, wildly entertaining, and often startling history of modern finance. Rather than the noble pursuit of gentlemen, international financial affairs in the nineteenth century were conducted in large part, the...

Introduction: Imagining a Confederate economy -- Shifting cultivation, slavery, and economic development -- Agricultural reform and state activism -- Explaining Lieber's paradox : railroads, state building, and slavery -- Redefining free trade to modernize the South -- Economic nationalism and...

Introduction: approaching the imperial Roman economy -- Central aims of the book -- Who will read this? Target audiences -- Lingering questions about imperial Rome -- The many faces of Roman economic history -- From fine-grained to 'big picture': methods and treatment of the evidence -- The...