A Fabulous Debt
The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World

Quotes

“A delightful history full of con men, kings, and prices moving inversely to yields. A Fabulous Debt is a compelling history of a powerful idea.”
— Jacob Goldstein, author of Money

“If you think that bubbles and panics are largely about equities, then guess again. Robin Wigglesworth’s deft treatment of fear and greed in bonds will entertain and educate you—and just might save your bacon as well.”
— William J. Bernstein, author of A Splendid Exchange

“A delightful romp through 850 years of western history. And for once, a financial instrument is cast as the hero of the tale.”
— Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine

“While the noisy stock market tends to grab the public’s attention, it is as Robin Wigglesworth shows in this superb book the quieter bond market which have won wars, built the infrastructure of modern life, and sometimes brought down governments. Crucial reading to understand the global economy of the 2020s and how we got here.”
— Duncan Weldon, author of Blood & Treasure

“In this rip-roaring book, Robin Wigglesworth takes us from the bonds that funded Hamilton’s vision for America to Britain’s rise as a global power. Told with wit, color, and insight, A Fabulous Debt is more than a finance book: it’s the story of the modern world.”
— Alex Edmans, professor of finance, London Business School, and author of The Madness of Markets

“At last we have an engaging and colorful history of the bond market and the innovative financiers who launched, shaped, and improved it from its origins in the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. This is a major contribution to financial history.”
— Richard Sylla, New York University, coauthor of A History of Interest Rates

Wigglesworth’s lively account spans the history of one of the most important financial innovations ever created. Who would have thought the story of bonds is full of drama, intrigue, and invention? From the murder of a Venetian doge and the taming of Dutch floodwaters to the defeat of Napoleon and the forging of the American republic, he shows how debt is embedded in the human challenge to build and sustain the modern world.”
— William Goetzmann, Yale University, author of Money Changes Everything

“Utterly absorbing and propulsive.”
— William Cohan, author of Power Failure, The Last Tycoons, and House of Cards

“A readable, wise, and panoramic history of the bond markets from their inception in Venice in 1172 through to the current day. And, given the imminent threat of yet another sovereign debt crisis, most timely.”
— Edward Chancellor, author of The Price of Time

“A sweeping history of a force-multiplying, time-traveling, fraud-enabling, civilization-building invention. Erudite, educational, and a lot of fun.”
— Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up

“Robin hasn’t just written a brilliant chronicle of the bond market, but has managed to explain how these financial tools built the world as we know it. Bonds have been deployed as weapons of war and empire-building, and as the instruments of idealists who dreamed of a united America (and a united Europe); they have also fueled destructive greed and financial mania. A scintillating read for anyone who wants to understand not just how bonds shaped our history, but how they might shape where we’re going.”
— Mike Bird, author of The Land Trap

“From twelfth century Venice to the Covid-19 panic and beyond, a lively account of the instrument that lies at the heart of the global financial system.”
— John Cassidy, staff writer, The New Yorker, and author of Capitalism and its Critics

“In A Fabulous Debt, Robin Wigglesworth rescues the bond market from its reputation for dullness and restores it to its rightful place at the center of world history—the instrument that was the foundation of medieval Venice’s trading wealth, that kept Britain solvent through the Napoleonic Wars and financed the Union through the American Civil War, that funded the great railroad booms of the nineteenth century and now underwrites the AI data center. It made modern states possible, and by allowing them to borrow too much, has occasionally destroyed them. In Wigglesworth’s hands this is narrative financial history at its best: erudite without being arid, ambitious in scope but never losing sight of the human beings who built this extraordinary machine.”
— Liaquat Ahamed, author of Pulitzer Prize–winning Lords of Finance and 1873

“In case you’re ever tempted to think bonds are boring, Wigglesworth has written a powerful book proving they are absolutely not. Instead, they should be viewed as one of the great modern innovations of our age that urgently needs better understanding. In a sweeping, magisterial account, he explains how bonds first emerged in medieval Europe. They then played a vital role in powering the Renaissance and the emergence of European economic and political strength. Subsequently, bonds were central to the rise of London as a financial center and the dramatic emergence of American finance in the twentieth century. The account is highly readable and accessible to anyone, featuring lively characters and stories. But it also provides a thoroughly expert analysis of markets that is very insightful for any student or practitioner of finance. A must read for anyone interested in history, finance, money—or simply the nature of innovation.”
— Gillian Tett, author of Fool’s Gold