Why All Money Dies: History’s Biggest Currency Failures (The Secret History of Money)

Why All Money Dies: History’s Biggest Currency Failures (The Secret History of Money)

Every fiat currency in history has eventually failed. Not because of chance or bad luck — but because trust was stretched too far. From ancient Rome to revolutionary America, from medieval India to Weimar Germany, the pattern is unmistakable. When governments face war, debt, or political pressure, they reach for the same solution: dilute the currency, promise stability tomorrow, and hope confidence holds. It never does. In Why All Money Dies , bestselling finance author Aurelius Grant examines five of the most consequential monetary collapses in history — not as distant curiosities, but as warnings that still echo today. Inside, you’ll discover: • Rome’s Silver Debasement How the Denarius — the currency that built an empire — was quietly hollowed out until trust collapsed. • India’s Copper Currency Disaster When forced fiat money destroyed confidence across the Delhi Sultanate and triggered one of history’s earliest inflationary crises. • America’s First Paper Failure Why the Continental Dollar collapsed before independence was secured — and what it reveals about political money. • France’s Revolutionary Experiment How the Assignats began as a solution to debt and ended in chaos, shortages, and social unrest. • Weimar Germany’s Hyperinflation The moment money ceased to function, savings evaporated, and daily life unravelled in real time. These stories share a single, unbreakable truth: Money is not paper or digits — it is trust. Once that trust breaks, collapse follows. Drawing clear parallels between past failures and modern monetary policy, this book explains why inflation, currency debasement, and financial instability are not anomalies — they are features of systems built on confidence alone. This is not a prediction of imminent collapse, nor a call for panic. It is a calm, historically grounded exploration of how money fails — and why societies repeatedly ignore the warning signs. If you want to understand why currencies collapse, how trust erodes quietly, and what history teaches us about the risks embedded in modern money, Why All Money Dies offers a perspective that is both sobering and essential.