In 1647 the city of Paris kicked the French government out of town leaving the artists vulnerable to the city's craftsmen guilds. Without the protection of the crown, artists were sure to be forced to join and pay dues to one or more of the guilds that controlled Paris industry. Seeing themselves as apart from mere craftsmen, the artists organized the French Academy as a sort of guild of their own.

There had been an academy of art in Rome for a number of years and in the early 17th century the eternal city was still considered the capital of the art world. The Roman academy was merely a school for the study of ancient art and architecture. Since the Renaissance, the realism of Greek and Roman art was taken up again and the only place to study realism was in Rome.

Artists would go to Rome to study, but increasingly trade in art was centered in Paris. So, the original French Academy was set-up for only those who could render the human body realistically. They immediately set-up a school to teach inspiring artists how to paint and draw the human figure without going to Rome. This set the standard for an artist for the next three centuries.

To market the artists to the public, the French Academy became yearly Salons, juried exhibitions of the best art produced that year. Artists everywhere wanted to be accepted into the yearly salons for it soon became a popular as today's Motion Picture Academy Awards (the similarities could easily lead one to say that the academy has moved from art to movies in the 20th century). All of Europe would follow what was shown at the Paris Salon and who were the top artists. Early newspapers would send reporters.

As other big cities set-up academies of art, good artists could travel across Europe and America as an art professor while perfecting their art. It became a very tight means of support for all who could show enough talent to draw humans realistically.

Oddly enough, the New York Stock Exchange still requires a picture with a human figure on all its stock certificates. This was a 19th century way of distinguishing the NYSE as a cut above other exchanges where a mere picture of a train or ship graced the stock certificates.

In like manner, the money supply of Europe and America was under the control of the supply of gold until the 20th century. The American Civil War demonstrated that modern warfare needed a money supply that was free of the limited supply of gold. To raise the amount of money and motivate the masses to join the war effort both the North and South printed paper money far beyond any species to back it. As only one side could win, the economy eventually adjusted back to a gold standard since the Confederate dollar became worthless.

Yet, the lesson was learned that governments would have to retain the option to print lots of currency again if it was ever to meet the demands of mechanical warfare. In the 1890's many rural Americans wanted more dollars to be printed by backing them with silver. As the country expanded west, gold dollars were always scarce beyond the Eastern cities.

In 1907 a panic on Wall Street lead to a sharp recession and a run on banks. By 1914 the Federal Reserve system was begun to deal with the occasional cash flow problems and to stabilise the value of extra dollars that weren't completely backed by gold. The gold standard remained for purposed of balancing trade with foreign countries, but for the most part the Federal Reserve printed dollars without matching them up with gold bullion.

By coincidence the Federal Reserve System began just after Europe fell into the First World War and most of its stock exchanges were closed for months. With America's new modern economic system, New York overtook London as the center of world finance. As European countries expanded their currency beyond the gold standard, much of this "blue sky" money found its way to American shores.

After the First World War, the British tried to stabilise the value of their pound sterling and referred most international finance to New York. Germany went the opposite way and totally devalued its currency against foreign exchange. America did alright, but the bubble created by taking on most of world's war financing lead to the famous stock market crash of 1929.

The years leading up to World War One were just as wild in the visual arts as it was in world finance. This was the time of Picasso's great leap to modern abstraction. Suddenly, painting the human figure perfectly was not necessary to become an artist. Following the war the art academy system quickly gave way to this new breed of daring modernists. The yearly salons faded away, attended only by the old generation of aristocrats.

The aristocracy was what WW I and the modern art movement had defeated. Never again would people go to war because some monarch wanted them to. Never again would fine art be limited to painstaking realism that only the very wealthy could afford. Now, the will of the common people would control politics, art, and money.

The transition was never so sudden as that for everyone. Most people assumed that money was still gold and silver. Most people considered old master paintings as superior to modern works. It took a second world war before the tables were truly changed.

Many experts say the depression of the 1930's was caused by central bankers' attempts to put the money supply back on the gold standard. The amount of money in circulation shrank and gold was made illegal to even possess. Meanwhile, Germany was fighting the other extreme. Hitler was installed in power to bring Germany back to glory. He was an artist and passionately hated modern art.

Since the German Mark was no longer backed by anything, Hitler's banker was free to figure-out something all together different. So, Germany began issuing three or four different Marks. One could only be spent within Germany, another would be convertible into other currencies, and so forth. According to how friendly you were to the German Reich, you would be paid in either good Marks or Marks you had to travel to Germany to spend.

The rest of Europe didn't have a good response to this. Before they knew it, Germany had used this monetary system to motivate its workforce and build-up a massive war machine.

America saw a repeat of the First World War coming where European countries would be buying endless supplies of war material from the US. To head this off, the "lend lease" program was devised. With this the US Government would borrow heavily from the Federal Reserve (essentially increasing the dollar supply) to build tanks, planes, and supplies that the Allied countries would need. After the war they would either return the machinery with a rent payment or the European Allies would build new tanks and planes for us in return.

After Pearl Harbor the "lend lease" program turned into a campaign for American to out-spend and out-build the German army.In three short years the American dollar supply tripled with the Federal Reserve buying almost all the war bonds and at bargain interest rates. The workforce was motivated and the American industrial economy brought prosperity to North America.

The Federal Reserve chairman after WWII warned that all the new dollars printed would overrun all the markets someday. The Federal debt was bigger than the GDP. Yet, politicians didn't want to believe it. All they saw was a chance to take-on any project, any new domestic need, any new secret weapon their heart desired.

In like manner, modern art came out of the war triumphant. Suddenly, that crazy art of the 10's and 20's was selling at old master prices. America had its own line of upstart modern artists who became world beaters. The realism of the Academy had transformed into commercial illustration for service to the advertising trade.

Another major change involving art and money was the death of the craftsmen guilds brought on by the industrial revolution. By the late 19th century handcrafted goods were being replaced by factory made goods at substantially reduced costs. Only the rich continued to employ craftsmen and it started to look bad for those with a lifetime of skill. In the 1890's the Arts and Crafts movement was founded to help craftsmen to sell works to the middle class.

Before the Civil War everybody bought hand crafted goods of some sort. They cost a lot, but the quality insured the products would last a long time. By the late 19th century factories had become larger and more efficient at churning out lots of cheap everyday items. This greatly cut into the livelihood of craftmen communities like the Shakers who couldn't compete on price with the big factories.

Many new concepts were started to provide work for the craftmen. Most notably was architecture. High Victorian homes used an excess of wood decorations. World's Fair exhibitions employed scores of craftmen to make temporary buildings and show their wares. The rise of the office building skyscraper included refined architectural elements up to the art deco era of the 1930's.

With the depression and World War II the old craftmen had retired and the mostly middle class population forgot about craftsmanship. Factory made goods were the rage and it didn't matter if you had to by new appliances and furniture every five to ten years. The Arts & Crafts movement went underground and became a middle-class pastime activity.

Then in the 1960's at the Toledo Ohio Museum of Art some glassmakers created what has become known as the "studio glass" movement. This is where craftsmenship met fine art. The material of glass is so unique and not easily available to everyone that making fine art sculpture out of glass has become the a lucrative new art form. The material limits the number of artists and at the same time offers something that has not been seen before. It has become the brightest star in the world of fine art as well as the arts and crafts movement.

Another new art form with much promise is computer generated graphics. This has mostly been a commercial art form done for advertising, computer games, and the motion picture business.