August 14, 2009
North, Douglass C. and Barry Weingast (1989) “Constitution and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutional Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England”, The Journal of Economic History, 49/4: 803-832.



Disclaimer: this summary is written by the contributors of the blog and not by the author of the article. Any mistake is Manuel’s fault (and he shall be punished).
“Put simply, successful long-run economic performance requires appropriate incentives not only for economic actors but for political actors as well. Because the state has a comparative advantage in coercion, what prevents it from using violence to extract all the surplus?” Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment |
Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, 1688, 1700s, Douglass North, economics, England, finance, Glorious Revolution, Great Britain, institutions, Loans, New Institutional Economics, Nobel prize, private finance, public finance |
Permalink
Posted by Ben
August 12, 2009
Quinn, Stephen (2001) “The Glorious Revolution’s Effect on English Private Finance: A Microhistory 1680-1705”, The Journal of Economic History, 61/3: 593-615.



Disclaimer: this summary is written by the contributors of the blog and not by the author of the article. Any mistake is Manuel’s fault (and he shall be punished).
Introduction
According to North and Weingast’s famous thesis, the investiture of William III of England in 1688, the “Glorious Revolution”, triggered a quick modernization of the British financial system – prompting in turn a fall of the interest rates. But the arrival of the new king also led the realm into a new war against France which lasted nine years and increased public debt from £1 million to £19 million (⅓ of the national income; p.593). Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » |
Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, 1700s, bank, Bank of England, banker, crowding out, Douglass North, early finance, East India Company, England, finance, financial history, financial market, financial revolution, Glorious Revolution, goldsmith, Great Britain, institution, interest rates, investment, loan, London, modernization, New Institutional Economics, Nobel prize, Parliament, public finance, William III |
Permalink
Posted by Ben
August 10, 2009
Carlos, Ann M., Jennifer Key and Jill L. Dupree (1998) “Learning and the Creation of Stock-Market Institutions: Evidence from the Royal African and Hudson’s Bay Companies, 1670-1700”, The Journal of Economic History, 58/2: 318-344.



Disclaimer: this summary is written by the blog and not by the authors of the article. Any mistake is Manuel’s fault.
Introduction
“England’s emergence as an international trading nation in the seventeenth century can be linked to the growth of trading arrangements that allowed for a longer life of capital either […] as a joint-stock trading company” (p.318).
According to North and Weingast’s famous thesis this emergence was made possible by the reforms brought by the 1688 Glorious Revolution. However the authors underline the fact that markets don’t grow instantaneously and it takes some times for the actors to learn how to use the market (p.319). Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » |
Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, 1700s, bankers, brokers, corporation, early finance, East India Company, England, finance, financial history, financial intermediaries, financial market, Glorious Revolution, goldsmith bankers, Great Britain, Hudson Bay Company, know-how, learning curve, London, premodern finance, Royal African Company, secondary market, securities, shareholders, stock exchange, stock-market, United Kingdom |
Permalink
Posted by Ben
April 28, 2009
Temin, Peter and Voth, Hans-Joachim (2008) “Private borrowing during the financial revolution: Hoare’s Bank and its customers, 1702-24”, Economic History Review, 61/3, 541-564.



Introduction
The Financial Revolution is said to have allowed the British government to borrow widely and cheaply. Famously, North and Weingast added that it also had a profound and beneficial effect on private businesses (p.541). To assess the latter claim, the authors use data collected from the archives of a small London goldsmith bank, Hoare’s (p.542). It is likely that their sample is fairly representative since there were only a dozen such establishments around 1700s. The key event of the period is the lowering of the legal maximum interest rate from 6 to 5% in 1714 by the heavily indebted British government at the end of the War of Spanish Succession (p.543). Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » |
Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, 1700s, bank, borrowing, deregulation, England, equities, finance, financial revolution, Great Britain, law, loan, London, private finance, public finance, regulation, shares, United Kingdom, usury, usury laws |
Permalink
Posted by Ben