Riccardo De Bonis - Maria Iride Vangelisti "Moneta - From Homer's oxen to Bitcoins", Il Mulino, Bologna, 2019, pp. 202, Euros 14,00
As Fabio Panetta, former Director General of the Bank of Italy and currently an Italian member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank rightly underlines in the Preface of this book, “the rules of money and payment instruments concern all of us citizens”. One more valid reason to approach an analysis which, without paying duty to the rigor of research and timely documentation, as evidenced by the numerous and qualified bibliographic references, takes by the hand and accompanies even the less expert reader on a cognitive path of great suggestion, but equally complex.
The simple and clear language used by the two authors, both Bank of Italy officials, together with the glossary and regulatory references that enrich the overall scope of this book, further support the commendable intention of expanding, beyond the circle of the "usual concerned”, the diffusion of the topics of money and the payment system, of their evolution and even more recent changes, made to register under the irresistible impulse of disruptive technological innovation.
The system of the book, divided into 9 agile chapters, initially foresees a historical reconstruction of the currency, starting from money as a pure commodity to arrive at minted metal money and subsequently to banknotes and the origins of modern banks, in particular of Central Banks. The notions and related problems are expertly placed by the two authors in the historical contexts in which they are natural, with an international overview of certain interest, indispensable for addressing both the issue of payment systems, focusing on the use of cash and other instruments, and on the other of the intermediaries that offer payment services.
The references to technological innovation, which are referred to in this part, open up to the reader the path for the further stage, dedicated toevolution of payment instruments. In this context, the specific analysis dedicated to the costs and risks of the payment system and the search for suitable solutions to mitigate its negative effects, both from a national and an international perspective.
Furthermore, the detailed reference to the fascinating cryptocurrency theme, characterized by their initial, as surprising as it is ephemeral, success and the possibility for Central Banks to create and manage their own digital currency. Thus, there is space in this context for a reconsideration of the hypothesis formulated by the economist and Nobel Prize winner James Tobin, developed in the 80s, in a moment of serious crisis in the US banking system, regarding the possibility for the Central Banks of that country to accept customer deposits. A hypothesis justified, as has already been said, by the desire to preserve internal monetary stability, severely tested by the bankruptcies of some banks, but which, if it had been accepted, would have undermined one of the fundamental principles on which the system is based of contemporary countries: the non-competition between Central Banks and other intermediaries, primarily commercial banks.
Also Facebook's recent proposal to launch a digital currency, Libra, prefiguring the creation of an alternative international currency outside the control systems and rules of Central Banks and supranational Supervisory Authorities, is included in the group of initiatives that in fact call into question the current regulatory framework, raising many perplexities and obviously not receiving the applause of the authors.
The suggestive final comparison between the payment system and the circulatory system of the human body, evoked since the middle of the seventeenth century by Hobbes in his Leviathan, adds grist to the mill of those who wholeheartedly support the crucial role of Central Banks in terms of controls and overall confidence in the financial system. A role that will, however, be reaffirmed, the two authors are certain, regardless of the potential futuristic solutions adopted for the payment system, in any scenario, in which "payment system rules and trust in money" can never be lacking.
