The author explores the economies of ancient civilizations and discusses their relevance in the twenty-first century. The author describes how interest-bearing debt was invented in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and then disseminated to the ancient world. What the Bronze Age rulers understood was that avoiding economic instability required regular royal debt cancellations. This book documents dozens of these these royal edicts, traces the archaeological record and history of debt, and describes how societies have dealt with (or failed to deal with) the proliferation of debts that cannot be paid.–adapted from publisher’s description.