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Class number:
3010
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Title: Money, Merchants and Culture |
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Department: History |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Lecture |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: No |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 29 |
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Current enrollment: 17 |
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Available seats: 12 |
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Start date: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 |
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End date: Friday, May 8, 2026 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM, HL - 123 |
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Instructor(s): Elukin, Jonathan |
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Prerequisite(s): None |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities and Global Requirements |
Course Description:
From the early days of barter economies to the modern world of stocks, hedge funds and bitcoin, money (and merchants, bankers and consumers) has been a driving force in history. The course will explore the varied aspects of money's evolution: the political meaning of coins in the ancient world; the impact of traders and merchants on the expansion of early cities, states and empires; attitudes towards the rewards and dangers of money in Christianity; the rise of merchant bankers like the Medici of Florence, the crucial importance of merchants from Venice and Genoa to the Crusades; how great wealth creates standards of luxury in fashion, food, and design that shape aristocratic and popular values; and the quasi-religious beliefs about the free market in the modern world. |