The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
By Niall Ferguson
Allen Lane £25, 464 pages
FT Bookshop price: £20

If, in accordance with the mood of the moment, you are wont to think that financiers are all parasites, con-men or just plain greedy, you will find plenty to support that view in Niall Ferguson’s new book. For the tales he tells of boom and bust, of triumph and disaster, of bubbles that inflate, creating spectacular riches that then vanish when pins come along to pop them, are the very essence of financial history. But there is a lot more to such history, and to this book, than that. So you will be disappointed if what you crave is a condemnation of finance and all its works. For Ferguson argues that like it or not – and mostly we should like it – finance is vital to human progress and always has been.