It seems a simple question — what is money?— but the answer is more complicated than you’d think. In 1891, America’s greatest self-made man, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, took on the subject in this essay. Here, he explains:• the historical basis for money as a medium of exchange• the difference between “money” and “currency”• the trouble governments get into when they “make money”• the problems that coming with backing currency with silver• the “good sense” of the gold standard• and more.The ABC of Money: Lessons from a Tycoon offers a highly readable discussion of a basic concept of economics.Also from Cosimo: Carnegie’s Round the World, Triumphant Democracy, James Watt, An American Four-in-Hand in Britain, The Empire of Business, The Gospel of Wealth, and the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.