Representations of value: money and capital from clay tablets to cryptocurrencies

The course aims to contribute to the learning objectives of the master's degree program in "Cultural, Intellectual and Visual History" by developing the knowledge and skills related to the analysis of value representations in historical perspective. The digital age implies a dematerialization of money, which is increasingly deprived of its physical presence as a quantity of coins or banknotes, while retaining intact, or even enhanced, its character as an object of desire and appropriation. Such ambivalence, however, is not new: it goes back to the very origins of money, born digital, as a pure unit of account used to record debts and credits, but embodied in the material substance of a clay tablet. Money is, from its origin, both thing and relation, means and end, symbol of value and wealth in itself. It is this ambiguous nature that makes money a significant field of inquiry within a course dedicated to exploring the relationship between reality and representation.

The course introduces students to the distinctive features of money, tracing the main stages through which monetary functions have appeared and evolved throughout history, from the invention of writing to the most recent innovations in information technology. The study of monetary and financial institutions, and in particular the way in which the functions of money are articulated, allows for questions not only about how value is created and distributed, but also about the balance of public and private, legitimate and illegitimate powers, and the articulation between the autonomy of local communities and their integration into global commerce. The aim of the course is to promote a critical understanding of monetary and financial institutions as they originate from a peculiar way of thinking about money and, at the same time, as they give rise, in different configurations, to different forms of economic and social relations.

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
- give an account of the origin and evolution of money, illustrating the basic functions and dynamics of the monetary and financial system as the connective tissue underlying capitalist economies;
- analyze and critically discuss how different configurations of money and credit give rise to different forms of exchange and sociality;
- define the basic concepts of economic and monetary thought;
- describe the realities and representations of monetary and financial institutions, national and international, in their historical evolution;
- apply acquired knowledge to understand the current monetary and financial system and its institutional, economic and social dynamics, relating them critically to the past;
- formulate clear, relevant and original research questions, taking into account the existing historiography, so as to be able to conduct research and in-depth investigations independently and rigorously;
- collect, select, organize and use for the purposes of historical inquiry primary and secondary sources (textual, graphic, material, audiovisual, quantitative), also making use of appropriate IT tools;
- participate actively and with critical contributions in academic, political or public discussions;
- write, present and discuss research reports, using appropriate vocabulary and adapting argumentative style to a variety of possible audiences;
- use multimedia IT instruments to support oral presentation, in-person and remotely.