Introduction to the History of Money and Banking

A story-driven history of money and banking for anyone who has ever wondered why a printed piece of paper can buy a week of groceries. Start with the problem barter never solved, move through cowrie shells, punch-marked coins and Sher Shah Suri's rupiya, and see how goldsmith receipts and Indian hundis turned into paper money and modern banking. Learn how banks actually create money, why bank runs happen, and why the world built central banks and then abandoned the gold standard. Then follow the Indian story closely: the founding of the RBI, bank nationalisation in 1969, the 1991 reforms that brought back private banks, demonetisation in 2016, and the UPI and e-rupee era. Written for general market enthusiasts, history and macro curious readers, and investors from every track who want to understand the system their money lives inside.