Land issues bedevil all Australians and New Zealanders still. John Lepper followed the money trail back to European settlement. He starts with a question seldom asked: 'Why colonise Australasia?' Money, he found, was a big part of it, but philosophical currents, blood ties and defence policy are mooted too. In this, the first of two volumes that end in 1914, are how 'Our place' first got a monetary value. Enter the banks, a saga embracing the gold standard.