From the Medicis of fifteenth-century Florence to the recent financial crisis, accounting can make and break nations. In this bold retelling of economic history, Jacob Soll shows how it has built states, empires and entire civilizations, yet also contributed to cycles of destruction that continue to this day. 'One longs for a way of reading history that makes some sense of the fickle financial forces that still seem to bind the world. Happily, this is what Jacob Soll has achieved in his brilliant, deceptively brief book.' Andrew Benedict-Nelson, Los Angeles Review of Books 'One of the world's pre-eminent experts . a dazzling book, rigorously researched and demonstrating an extraordinary scholarly range.' Literary Review 'In Soll's hands, accountability and accountancy becomes a way of investigating the rise and fall of nations.' Duncan Kelly, Financial Times 'A dramatic story of politics, morality, printing, temptation and the destiny of economic society.

' Emma Rothschild.