The Money Lenders 1981 is a book by British journalist Anthony Sampson

Anthony Sampson

Anthony Terrell Seward Sampson was a British writer and journalist. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford and served with the Royal Navy from 1944-47. During the 1950s he edited the magazine Drum in Johannesburg, South Africa...

 that looks at the history of banking from the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 to a meeting of the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 in Washington DC in 1980, with an emphasis on the interaction of finance with international diplomacy.

The book was largely inspired by the work of the Brandt Commission on "North-South relations." Mr. Sampson served as editorial advisor to the chairman, Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....

, on that commission.

The Money Lenders begins with a vivid description of the scene in the lobby of the Sheraton Washington Hotel during that 1980 IMF meeting, which Sampson labels "the most superior of all salesmen's conventions."