The US dollar’s ‘immigrant’ origins

美元的“移民”之源

Behind the Money

2026-06-24

47 分钟
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Today, when you think of a dollar, the US dollar probably comes to mind first. But that hasn’t always been the case. In this episode of The Story of Money, Brendan Greeley, the author of The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money, explains the origins of the world’s first dollar, the Joachimstaler, and the hapless Bohemian count who played a role in its creation. Greeley, and hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth discuss the dollar’s evolution, and whether it may even outlive the current US dollar system.  Further reading: The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money, by Brendan Greeley (2026)   Credits: Getty Images, Brendan Greeley  To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney  Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth Producer: Lulu Smyth Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight  Executive Producer: Manuela Saragosa Original music and sound design: Breen Turner Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis Podcast Development: Laura Clarke FT Global Head of Audio: Flo Phillips  Video editor: Josh Divney and Kristen Kenyon at Podcast Discovery Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • In 1898, John Nuvine had a vision to underwrite

  • municipal bonds that would propel American infrastructure into the 20th century.

  • More than 125 years later, that vision lives on.

  • Today, Nuvine has grown into a leading global asset manager with expertise spanning public and private markets,

  • still investing with a future in mind.

  • By the early 17th century, the word dollar shows up in Shakespeare twice.

  • This wasn't just for merchants.

  • So as commerce spreads to the American colonies, the dollar also becomes a standard accepted unit of value and coin.

  • In the United States as well or rather in the colonies

  • but then they choose for their currency a Spanish coin made from Mexican silver with a German name.

  • Well that shows the joys of multiculturalism and immigrants they get the job done.

  • It's an immigrant coin it's not the story of sovereignty.

  • So when is someone going to tell the American government that they're using an immigrant coin?

  • Today on the story of money the origins of the dollar.

  • That's the topic which is super timely today because I've been seeing central bank governors

  • and finance ministers recently and what many of them are wondering is can the dominance

  • of the dollar remain in place and is there anything which could possibly topple it?

  • And of course to answer those questions about why the dollar is so dominant,

  • it actually pays to look not just to the future but also to the past.

  • And to understand exactly how and where the dollar came from in the first place,