The rise of finance solved a specific problem that accompanied the rise of global systems of commodity exchange. An enterprising manufacturer, knowing that demand existed for his product but lacking the resources to make it, could go to a bank and borrow money to scale up his workshop or factory. In effect, the entrepreneur borrowed exchange value from the future. How has finance come to dominate the global economy? How has the function of lending changed over time? And how has finance become central to global imperialism?
