Monetary History, Central Banking & Economic Systems

Evenings unpacking where money actually comes from — and who gets to make it.

Booking now

Each session1 hr 30 min a session

How oftenOnce a week

Cohort10–14 per cohort

SeasonYear-round · a new cohort starts each month

What you leave with

A clear answer to where money comes from, and who decides how much there is

Commodity monies, fractional reserve banking, fiat debasement and decentralised currencies. An open-minded seminar rather than a position paper.

The material is genuinely contested and the room is run that way: the instructor presents the mechanics and the arguments, and the cohort does the concluding.

What makes this one worth it

Commodity Money, The Gold Standard & Credit Origins
Fractional Reserve Banking & The Federal Reserve
Bretton Woods & The Global Fiat Dollar Standard
Digital Currencies, Bitcoin & The Future of Money

What is included

All 4 sessions of the 4-week cohort — 6 hours of instruction
A place held for you for the whole run, in a cohort of 10–14
Every piece of equipment listed below, provided on the day
Your instructor, and their attention in a group this size

What to bring

Water, and something to eat if you want it
Nothing else — the kit is provided

How it runs

Once a week · 1 hr 30 min a session

Frequency: 1x / week — 90 minutes, evenings
Session length: 1 hr 30 min
Each month: 4 sessions, about 6 hours
Cohort size: 10 – 14 participants
Where: Bookshop backroom / community seminar room
Level: All Levels (no prior economics training required)
Commitment: Monthly — stay as long as it is worth it

What you cover, in rotation

The group works through these in order and then begins again on fresh ground. Join at whatever stage it is on — nothing here assumes you were there for the last one, and nothing runs out — or drop in for a single session if that is all you can manage.

Stage 1Commodity Money, The Gold Standard & Credit Origins
- The myth of barter, after Graeber.
- Rai stones, tally sticks, cowrie shells and gold coin minting.
- The goldsmiths of London and the birth of paper bank notes.
Stage 2Fractional Reserve Banking & The Federal Reserve
- How commercial banks create money through loans and credit expansion.
- The 1913 creation of the Federal Reserve, and central bank balance sheets.
- Open market operations, rate manipulation and quantitative easing.
Stage 3Bretton Woods & The Global Fiat Dollar Standard
- The 1944 agreement and the 1971 closing of the gold window.
- Petrodollar hegemony, sovereign debt cycles and inflation dynamics.
- How currency depreciation shifts wealth between classes.
Stage 4Digital Currencies, Bitcoin & The Future of Money
- Cryptographic scarcity against central bank digital currencies.
- Smart contracts, programmable money and decentralised finance.
- A closing roundtable on a resilient personal economic strategy.