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Personal Finance Through History

Personal Finance Through History

By: Nathan Pali
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About this listen

Personal Finance Through History is a personal finance and history podcast exploring how ordinary people have earned, saved, spent, borrowed, invested, and survived with money across centuries.

Before budgets, credit cards, retirement accounts, and investing apps, people still faced the same questions: How do I survive winter? How do I avoid debt? How do I build security? How do I protect my family?

This podcast tells the forgotten story of personal finance through history—from ancient survival economics and early trade to banking, wages, inflation, credit, markets, and modern financial systems—and explains how those past systems still shape your money life today.

Each episode blends financial history, behavioral finance, psychology of money, and clear explanations of how the financial system works to uncover:

  • How people managed money before banks and paychecks
  • Why debt, credit, and interest evolved
  • How wages, inflation, and wealth changed family life
  • Why financial crises repeat across generations
  • How fear, greed, and status shaped money behavior
  • How the brain processes risk and financial loss
  • What history teaches about saving, spending, and investing

This isn’t a stock-picking podcast or a modern money advice show. It’s a story-driven guide to personal finance, financial behavior, and understanding how history quietly built the systems that control modern money.

If you’re interested in personal finance, financial history, history of money, behavioral economics, psychology of money, how the financial system works, wealth building, and learning how the past explains today’s financial challenges—this podcast is for you.

Personal Finance Through History Because your money problems are older than you think.

© 2026 Personal Finance Through History All rights reserved.
Economics Personal Finance World
Episodes
  • The South Sea Bubble and Financial Follies
    Feb 15 2026

    In this episode, we explore the speculative frenzy of the South Sea Bubble in 1720s Britain, a period where financial innovation met widespread public speculation. We uncover how attempts to manage national debt led to an unsustainable stock market boom and its eventual dramatic collapse, leaving a lasting impact on financial regulations and public trust.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introduction to the South Sea Bubble

    00:44 The South Sea Company's Proposition

    02:09 The Rise of South Sea Shares

    05:06 The Speculative Frenzy Spreads

    10:30 The South Sea Bubble Bursts

    15:34 Lessons from the Bubble

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    14 mins
  • Unpacking the Tulip Mania Bubble
    Feb 14 2026

    In this episode, we explore the historical phenomenon of Tulip Mania in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, examining how a market for exotic flowers transformed into a speculative bubble driven by contract trading. We discuss the societal conditions that enabled such speculation and the key factors that led to its eventual, yet contained, collapse.

    Chapters

    00:00 Tulip Mania's Beginnings

    00:00 The Dutch Republic Market

    02:04 Tulips as Status Goods

    03:20 The Rise of Tulip Contracts

    05:00 Low Entry, High Hype

    08:25 The Logic of Bubbles

    10:12 The Bubble Bursts

    13:02 Lessons from Tulip Mania

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    12 mins
  • Spanish Silver and Europe's Price Revolution
    Feb 13 2026

    In this episode, we explore how overwhelming quantities of silver from the Americas reshaped 16th-century European economies and triggered the 'Price Revolution.' We also discuss how this surge in global money resulted in widespread inflation, economic paradoxes for Spain, and a silent redistribution of wealth across society.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introduction to New World Silver

    01:55 The Price Revolution Begins

    04:46 Silver's Journey and Spain's Paradox

    08:46 Impact on Contracts & Society

    11:52 Spain's Struggles and Global Reach

    15:23 Lessons from Abundant Money

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    12 mins
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