September 12, 2009
Stabel, Peter and Jelle Haemers (2006) “From Bruges to Antwerp. International commercial firms and government’s credit in the late 15th and early 16th century”, in Banca, Crédito y Captial. La Monarquía Hispánica y los antiguos Países Bajos (1505-1700), eds. Carmen Sanz Ayán and Bernardo J. García García, Madrid: Fundación Carlos de Amberes, p.20-38.



Introduction
The Financial Revolution – i. e. the gradual increase of government spending made possible by an increasing reliance on loans obtained from the capital markets – has essentially been studied from the side of the public demand. The ability of the markets to match this demand being regarded almost as a given. Meanwhile the impact the governments’ enormous financial needs may have had on private finance have hardly been addressed (p.22). Read the rest of this entry »
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Economic History | Tagged: 1400s, 1500s, Antwerp, bankers, Belgium, Bruges, Bruxelles, budget, Burgundy, Charles V, Credit, finance, financial revolution, Habsburg, Maximilian I, Medicis, merchant, merchant bankers, Netherlands, private finance, public finance |
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September 6, 2009
Flandreau, Marc, Christophe Galimard, Clemens Jobst and Pilar Nogués-Marco (2009) “Monetary Geography Before the Industrial Revolution”, CEPR, DP7169, 25p.



Introduction
Some argue that national moneys have been constructed by states, but not before the 19th century. Prior, during the 18th century, there were no monetary borders to speak of and local markets were integrated by the ubiquitous bills of exchange; regulation remaining at a sub-national level (cities; p.1). Others have pointed out that the financial geography was not that seamless and that a shape arose from endogenous elements (transaction costs, agglomeration economies, etc.). Finally, institutionalist economists have argued that factors such as parliaments and constitutions were critical in the dawn of international finance (p.2). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1700s, Amsterdam, economic geography, finance, financial centres, Hamburg, industrial revolution, London, merchant bankers, Paris |
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August 30, 2009
Flandreau, Marc, Christophe Galimard, Clemens Jobst and Pilar Nogués-Marco (2009) “The bell-jar: commercial interest rates betwee two revolutions” in The Origin and Development of Financial Markets and Institutions. From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, eds. Jeremy Atack and Larry Neal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 161-208.



An earlier version of this paper is available here.
For institutionalist economists as well as for contemporary commentators, the wealth of nations in 18th century Europe was rooted in their political system which influenced the level of interest rates and thus trade (p.165). The confidence investors had in the government’s credit was thus seen as critical (tellingly John Law’s primary aim was to bring interest rates down; p.166).
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, 1700s, Amsterdam, bankers, banking, Braudel, capital, capital market, corporate finance, development, development economics de Soto, early finance, England, finance, financial centre, financial history, France, Glorious Revolution, institutionalist economics, interest rates, London, market integration, merchant bankers, merchants, money, Netherlands, NIE, Paris, private finance, public finance |
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Posted by Ben