Secrets and paradoxes... These are not at all the words that come to mind when you think about such an ordinary thing as money. Yes, every child knows that money is... this... But really: what is it? And isn’t it mystical that most of modern money does not have a physical body? Money exists mainly somewhere in virtual space, as some kind of electronic signals in the bottomless depths of computers, like an accounting entry, like a debt. Did you know that every time you take out a loan from a bank, you thereby increase the total amount of money in society, contributing, among other things, to inflation... Or here’s another riddle: it suddenly turns out that almost any object, under certain conditions, can become money, at least for a while? And then: what is the secret of their apparently mystical, incredible power over people? I was lucky enough to spend two years of my life in the editorial office of the most wonderful financial newspaper in the world - the Financial Times. For two years I read it from cover to cover almost every day. And I tried to figure out all these amazing things, bothering my over-patient English colleagues with questions. And now, at the BBC, I, too, am closely following the unfolding of this endless, fascinating thriller - a financial, monetary drama and a comedy of humanity. The mysterious history of an incomprehensible, mysterious object - money. This book is not at all for economists, but for curious people. They won't be bored!