Hubert Howe Bancroft's 10-volume BOOK OF WEALTH explores the origins and influence of wealth, from the earliest civilizations to the dawn of the Twentieth Century. The books offer an in-depth look at the history of economics and finance relative to the history of the human race, and include Bancroft's extraordinary insights into the psychology of economic exchange as he examines the individuals, organizations and nations that have attained great wealth. In Book Three, Bancroft investigates the great civilizations of the Mediterranean - the Roman and Moorish empires - and their effects on Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Turkish empire.