This is one of the books I read in early 2009 post meltdown to learn about how we arrived at the monetary system of today.
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
https://a.co/d/5D1Yp1c
The fact that you are posting this on an open Source Communication & Payment Network open up a 3rd direction and a world of possibilities that neither Orwell or Huxley could have imagined.
Nice post!