A Fabulous Debt

出自《金融時報》資深記者羅賓·威格斯沃斯（Robin Wigglesworth）之手，這是一部關於建立現代世界的債務之史詩歷史。

長期以來被認為是金融中「無聊」角落的債券，其實絕非如此。它們資助了從十字軍東征到氣候科技、從 Netflix 影集到 AI 數據中心的一切。它們如今的規模已超越了股市，其影響力甚至與全球銀行體系不相上下。它們也常被誤解——被視為僅僅是債務，而實際上它們的形式、功能和影響有著根本性的不同。

在《傳奇債務》（A Fabulous Debt）中，金融時報全球金融記者、《兆元兵團》（Trillions）作者羅賓·威格斯沃斯提供了一部波瀾壯闊且充滿深情的債券市場歷史。從17世紀荷蘭的築堤者到貝萊德（BlackRock）數兆美元的投資組合，這是一部人民的金融史：富含戲劇性、充滿形形色色的角色，且閃爍著真知爪見。

威格斯沃斯以清晰且幽默的筆觸，帶領讀者從中世紀的威尼斯走到現代的華爾街，追溯債券如何從晦澀的金融工具演變為現代世界無形的基建。一路上，我們會遇到軍閥與水務局、商賈與數學家、金融家與騙子——他們都曾協助建立這台全球金融中最強大的機器。

這不僅僅是一本關於過去的書。它是一本了解金融體系現狀與未來的指南，更是寫給那台維持體系運轉的引擎的一封情書。

From veteran Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth, an epic history of the debt that built the modern world.

Long considered the "boring" corner of finance, bonds are anything but. They have funded everything from the Crusades to climate tech, Netflix series to AI data centers. They are now bigger than the stock market and rival even the global banking system in influence. They are also misunderstood—treated as mere debt, when in fact their form, function, and impact are radically different.

In A Fabulous Debt, Robin Wigglesworth—The Financial Times’ Global Finance Correspondent, and author of the acclaimed Trillions—offers a sweeping, affectionate history of the bond market. From the dyke-builders of 17th-century Holland to the trillion-dollar portfolios of BlackRock, this is a people’s history of finance: rich in drama, full of colorful characters, and bursting with insight.

With clarity and wit, Wigglesworth takes readers from medieval Venice to modern Wall Street, tracing how bonds evolved from obscure financial instruments into the invisible architecture of the modern world. Along the way, we meet warlords and water boards, merchant princes and mathematicians, financiers and fraudsters—all of whom helped build the most powerful machine in global finance.

This isn’t just a book about the past. It's a guide to the present and future of the financial system—and a love letter to the engine that keeps it running.