FOR those of us who feel like there’s never quite enough of it in our pockets or bank accounts, the most basic concept of money seems quite straightforward — we need some more.

But money’s role today is far greater than merely being a way of paying for things. It lies at the centre of all political struggles about the type of society we want and how it might be achieved.

Despite the claims of some mainstream economists — and nearly all school textbooks — money is not a neutral element within an economy. It has always been a political and economic weapon, a social force that can get things done, control people and shape their lives.

It has become the planet’s operating system. Without money to record, facilitate and plan economic activity, it would be impossible to create and maintain modern, large-scale and capitalist-based societies. In the words of the song, it makes the world go round.

In this concise book, Geoffrey Ingham outlines and analyses the history, evolution and competing theories of money and illustrates how its creation, now predominantly carried out by the stroke of a private bank’s computer keyboard and without any democratic oversight, is the result of centuries of political, ideological and economic development.

He emphasises that while the accumulation of money can confer significant power on an individual, the mechanisms of its creation are of much more fundamental importance.

Despite some forays into academic and technical jargon, this book will hopefully help to counter our widespread ignorance of the corrupted international banking and monetary system.

If it can also hasten the demise of the current unjust social and economic order so that money can become an instrument for the benefit of the 99 per cent, we’ll all be quids in.

Money is published by Polity, £14.99.