Money: Historical and contemporary perspectives

01 October 2025 18:00 to 20:15

01Oct

The North entrance of Bush House, an impressive building with students coming in and out

Over the course of history, money has relied on trust. Mario Pisani argues that trust is a function of the capacity of state institutions to safeguard the value of money. Fundamentally, this is because traditionally the safest assets have been those that give you a claim on the state itself: state-issued money, central bank assets, or government securities. He explores how central banks and treasuries have through history directly or indirectly underpinned trust in money. Rhys Bidder looks at these debates from a contemporary perspective – acknowledging that many novel forms of money are currently emerging, stimulated in part by the advent of blockchain. While technological advances may be new, trust in central banks and in governments’ fiscal rectitude continue to be key – not only in the context of CBDC and tokenized deposits, but also, perhaps less obviously, in the case of stablecoins.

Event programme:

18:00 - 18:15	Registration
18:15 - 19:15	Panel and Audience Q&A
19:15 - 20:15	Drinks Reception

Mario Pisani is a Trustee of the Royal Mint Museum. He is also a Visiting Professor at the King’s College London where he teaches 'The Treasury and an introduction to Economic History – in partnership with HM Treasury’. He is also on the Council of the Society of Professional Economists and chairs the Treasury History Network.

Rhys Bidder is Deputy Director of the Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance at King’s Business School. Rhys spent several years as an economist at the San Francisco Fed and is currently a research affiliate of the Central Bank of Ireland. He also is an advisor at Chainlink Labs and has taught at several universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick. Rhys’ work has focused on bank intermediation and asset pricing, with recent emphasis on central bank digital currencies. His research has been published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Monetary Economics, the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Theory.

In partnership with the Society for Professional Economists.