Money and Empire

LAW 3219 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: No Exam

As they organize monetary systems, nations identify value and mobilize resources. Money – a legal institution - becomes a mode of nation-building and a dimension of internal governance.  By the same token, states have extended their reach across borders through monetary means, either displacing indigenous systems or extracting payment through financial leverage. But money can also operate as a mode of resistance, subversion, or reparation.  This reading group will explore accounts of empire effectuated through monetary leverage with an eye to monetary resistance as well.  We will draw from scholarship from and about Haiti, parts of Africa, Latin America, early America, Europe, and/or the Middle East.

Note: This reading group will meet on the following dates: TBD.