194. Empire of Numbers: Fibonacci and the Birth of Modern Money Image

194. Empire of Numbers: Fibonacci and the Birth of Modern Money

14 October 2024 - 41 mins
Podcast Series Empire: World History

When King Alfonso VI of León took Toledo from the Arabs in 1085, the history of western christendom changed forever. Within the city existed a number of texts full of the ideas that we would call Arabic numerals, but that originated in India. From the libraries of Toledo these were translated and spread through Europe. Enter Fibonacci. A genius Italian mathematician, he instantly recognised the advantages of this number system and so wrote Liber Abaci, distilling these ancient ideas into a Latin text. Once this caught on, it laid the foundation for the modern banking and economic system that underpins the global economy. 

Listen as William and Anita discuss how numerical ideas that originat...

41 mins

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