geography of money

A relatively recent domain in geography, concerned with the interactions between money, place, and space, ranging from the global scale— uneven development, capitalism, circuits of capital—to regional and local; such as variations in access to financial services. Of considerable interest is the continued predominance, despite time-space compression, of certain financial centres—Frankfurt, London, New York, and Tokyo—which is explained by the importance of face-to-face contacts. Money is not merely a means of exchange, it is also a social relation, and each particular monetary network has its own wisdoms. Money shapes economic geography; changes in money technology, such as travellers' cheques, credit and debit cards, and hotel vouchers, have been crucial, for example, in the dramatic expansion of international tourism.