Sterling
Like an underground stream which rarely comes to the surface but which nevertheless irrigates the countryside through which it flows, sterling runs through British history, from the Conquest up to the present day. With this passage, Nicholas Mayhew begins his fascinating look at one of the world s most storied, influential currencies. Sterling: The History of a Currency is both an absorbing account of the global impact of currency throughout the second millennium and an entertaining primer in financial history and theory. Mayhew traces the path of sterling from its genesis around 1080, during the rule of William the Conqueror, through latter-day struggles to hold its own amidst the global retreat from precious metals standards and the still-developing Euro. Tales of laborers and merchants interweave with those of knights and kings to reveal the social fabric of European society in 1500. Passages from Adam Smith s 1776 classic The Wealth of Nations outline early but fundamental principles of banking. The dramatic increase in the early nineteenth-century supply of sterling, accompanied by its equally dramatic fall in value, is explored, and the evolution of money from silver and gold through paper, plastic, and electronic impulses is contrasted with social movements that have changed our need for, and relationship with, money. Sterling, like the English landscape, has evolved over the centuries, reflecting and sometimes leading to changes in the nation s history, and also generating a sense of unchanging stability of fundamental importance to the national psyche. The history of sterling is nothing less than the history of England and the world. Sterling tells that story with all the vividness and drama which its topic so richly deserves.This profound book also travels far into the heart of mankind s physical and emotional relationship to currency. Whether you are a student of finance, history, psychology,or sociology, Sterling

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1. \Ster"ling\, n. (Engin.)
   Same as {Starling}, 3.
   

2. \Ster"ling\, n. [OE. sterlynge, starling, for
   easterling, LL. esterlingus, probably from Easterling, once
   the popular name of German trades in England, whose money was
   of the purest quality: cf. MHG. sterlink a certain coin. Cf.
   {East}. ``Certain merchants of Norwaie, Denmarke, and of
   others those parties, called Ostomanni, or (as in our vulgar
   language we tearme them), easterlings, because they lie east
   in respect of us.'' --Holinshed. ``In the time of . . . King
   Richard the First, monie coined in the east parts of Germanie
   began to be of especiall request in England for the puritie
   thereof, and was called Easterling monie, as all inhabitants
   of those parts were called Easterlings, and shortly after
   some of that countrie, skillful in mint matters and allaies,
   were sent for into this realme to bring the coine to
   perfection; which since that time was called of them
   sterling, for Easterling.'' --Camden. ``Four thousand pound
   of sterlings.'' --R. of Gloucester.]
   1. Any English coin of standard value; coined money.
            So that ye offer nobles or sterlings. --Chaucer.
            And Roman wealth in English sterling view.
                                                  --Arbuthnot.
   2. A certain standard of quality or value for money.
            Sterling was the known and approved standard in
            England, in all probability, from the beginning of
            King Henry the Second's reign.        --S. M. Leake.
   

3. \Ster"ling\, a.
   1. Belonging to, or relating to, the standard British money
      of account, or the British coinage; as, a pound sterling;
      a shilling sterling; a penny sterling; -- now chiefly
      applied to the lawful money of England; but sterling cost,
      sterling value, are used. ``With sterling money.'' --Shak.
   2. Genuine; pure; of excellent quality; conforming to the
      highest standard; of full value; as, a work of sterling
      merit; a man of sterling good sense.