The Political Economy of Monetary and Financial Innovation: Introduction and Overview by PETER BERNHOLZ, ROLAND VAUBEL.- Silver as a Financial Tool in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia by MARC VAN DE MIEROOP.- War and Peace, Imitation and Innovation, Backwardness and Development: the Beginnings of Coinage in Ancient Greece and Lydia by DAVID M. SCHAPS.- The Emergence and Spread of Coins in Ancient India by DEME RAJA REDDY.- The Emergence and Spread of Coins in China from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period by YOHEI KAKINUMA.- The Changing Pattern of Achaemenid Persian Royal Coinage by CHRISTOPHER TUPLIN.- The Spread of Coins in the Hellenistic World by ANDREW MEADOWS.-Monetary Innovation in Ancient Rome: the Republic and Its legacy by BERNHARD E. WOYTEK.- The Provision of Stable Moneys by Florence and Venice, and North Italian Financial Innovations in the Renaissance Period: the Political Context of Northern Italy from the Twelfth Century Onwards by PETER SPUFFORD.- Monetary and Financial Innovations in Flanders, Antwerp, London and Hamburg: Fifteenth to Eighteenth Century by MARKUS A. DENZEL.- The Bank of Amsterdam Through the Lens of Monetary Competition by STEPHEN QUINN, WILLIAM ROBERDS.- Monetary and Financial Innovation in the Spanish Empire: Lights and Shadows by CARLOS ALVAREZ-NOGAL- The Emergence and Innovations of the Eurodollar Money and Bond Market: the Role of Openness and Competition Between States by TORSTEN SAADMA, ROLAND VAUBEL.