Series director: Adrian Pennink
Recipient of the International Emmy 2008 for Best Documentary 

A six-part documentary presented by Niall Ferguson. Based on his book The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World, the film examines the long history of money, credit, and banking. Throughout the series, Niall Ferguson examines the origins of the pillars of the world’s financial systems, and how behind every great historical phenomenon – empires and republics, wars and revolutions – there lies a financial secret.

Episode 2: Human Bondage (47 min)
How did finance become the realm of the masters of the universe? Through the rise of the bond market in Renaissance Italy. With the advent of bonds, war finance was transformed and spread to north-west Europe and across the Atlantic. It was the bond market that made the Rothschilds the richest and most powerful family of the 19th century.