The story of our modern money began in North America, in Massachusetts colony at the time of the witch trials. Don’t miss this sweeping narrative that weaves together economics, law, and American history.

As the young settlement of Puritans in seventeenth-century Massachusetts transitioned to self-governance and its economy grew, the need to formalize smooth exchange emerged. From this, our current monetary system was born. The origins of these currencies have received little attention. Now, Easy Money shows how the weight of debt and limitations laid down by Mother England led to innovation: Elisha Hutchinson, member of the famous colonial family, and his compatriots in the mercantile middle class invented a currency that replaced their exchange of intrinsically valuable goods, such as silver. Dror Goldberg traces how that move grew into a worldwide system in which, monetarily, today, “we are all Massachusetts.”

Dror Goldberg is a senior faculty member in the Department of Management and Economics at the Open University of Israel. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester.