December 13, 2010

Oppers, Stefan E. (1993) The Interest Rate Effect of Dutch Money in Eighteen-Century Britain. The Journal of Economic History, 53/1: 25-43.
Dutch citizens invested heavily in Britain over the 18th century. Even though the English themselves regarded this phenomenon as a necessary evil, it greatly help the Crown to levy the necessary capital for its expenses over the century (p.28). In the 1740s Dutch financiers in London had become critical for the funding of the government’s deficit. To a large extent it can even be said that the Seven Years War was won thanks to foreign money.
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1700s, bonds, Britain, England, finance, financial history, France, French Wars, Loans, Netherlands, public debt, public finance, Seven Years War, United Kingdom, United States |
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Posted by Ben
May 25, 2010
Here’s an impressive infographic by the Chicago Tribune, on the national debt of the United States, 1940-2010.

Found via Visualizing Economics.
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America, Economic History, United States | Tagged: 1900s, 2000s, public finance, USA |
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Posted by Manuel A. Bautista-González
May 22, 2010
It’s Friday night in this side of the Western hemisphere, so, what the heck. I think you might find it funny. Here’s a bit of U. S. public debt history.

Does the average tea-party fan know better?
Found via The Big Picture.
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America, Economic History, United States | Tagged: 1900s, 2000s, crisis, financial history, public finance, USA |
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Posted by Manuel A. Bautista-González
January 16, 2010
Béguin, Katia (2005) La circulation des rentes constituées dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Une approche de l’incertitude économique. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 60/5 : 1229-1244.
Vodpod videos no longer available. Molière “L’Avare” Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1600s, Ancien Regime, bonds, Colbert, finance, financial markets, France, investment, Louis XIV, public finance, rente |
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Posted by Ben
October 11, 2009
Bochove, Christiaan van (2008) “Integration of Denmark-Norway in the Dutch capital market”, chapter 4 in The Economic Consequences of the Dutch. Economic integration around the North Sea, 1500-1800, Amsterdam: Aksant, 90-125.



The early modern markets for goods and labour were highly integrated. As the country’s Golden Age came to an end, by 1700, Dutch capital was increasingly finding investment opportunities abroad, chiefly in Great Britain but also in the Danish Kingdom (p.90). It had not always been the case. For instance around 1600, trade with Norway was conducted with cash rather than bills of exchange, a sure sign of poor integration. The concentration of trade in the hands of a local business elite (rather than scattered between small producers) made this modernization possible. By the mid century Norwegian merchants started drawing credit from Amsterdam (p.93). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, Denmark, finance, government borrowing, Netherlands, Norway, public debt, public finance, transaction costs |
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Posted by Ben
October 9, 2009
Murphy, Anne L. (2006) “Dealing with Uncertainty: Managing Personal Investment in the Early English National Debt”, History, 91/302, 200-17.

The sums involved in the so-called English Financial Revolution following the arrival on the throne of William III were altogether not that important: £6.9m from 1688 to 1702 while the government budget over the period reached £72m. However, “the impact of those novel methods of fund-raising was considerable”. In particular because small wealth-owners represented a large share of these early investors (p.201). Samuel Jeake, a merchant from Rye (East Sussex) was one of those small investors. He recorded his thought and his transactions in a diary and a few letters (p.202). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: Bank of England, behavioral economics, behavioral finance, capital, capital market, central bank, early finance, England, finance, financial markets, financial revolution, London, lottery, portfolio, portfolio management, public finance, Rye, small investors, stock-market, stocks, uncertainty, William III |
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Posted by Ben
October 6, 2009
Alonso García, David (2008) “Finances royales et monde financier dans la creation de la monarchie espagnole (xvie siècle)” in Les finances royales dans la monarchie espagnole (xvie-xixe siècles), ed Anne Dubet. Rennes: Presses Unioversitaires de Rennes, 175-186.



Early modern governments’ reliance on private finance has usually been interpreted as a sign of weakness. This is an anachronism; the use of private finance is the result of a strategy from the sovereigns (p.175). In Spain, the crown sees the involvement of the merchants in the tax-collection process as a way to enrich the kingdom (p.176). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1500s, Catholic Kings, Charles V, Ferdinand, finance, Habsburg, monarchy, obligado a guardas, public finance, Spain, tax, tax-collection, taxes |
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Posted by Ben
September 28, 2009
Dagnino, Giovanni Battista (1995) “The Tavola di Palermo: The First Public Bank of Second European XVI century” in Proceedings of the Conference on Business History, October 24 and 25 1994, Rotterdam, eds Mila Davids, Ferry de Goey & Dirk de Witt, 91-111.



The evolution of Sicilian banks reflects the history of the island during the early modern period, in that they were “economically and financially backward” (p.91). The 16th century in the Western Mediterranean was a time of Spanish Domination dominated by (1) money clipping, (2) high inflation, (3) commercial mismanagement, (4) Gresham Law episodes fuelled by unscrupulous financiers and (5) heavy and altogether negative government interventions (p.93). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1000s, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, central bank, central banking, finance, Italy, Mediterranean, Mezzogiorno, private banking, public finance, Sicily, Spanish Empire |
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Posted by Ben
September 21, 2009

Here is the list of preapproved sessions of the Second Latin American Economic History Congress (CLADHE-II), to be held in Mexico City on February 3-5, 2010. To submit a paper to any of the sessions, you have to go here.

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announcement, Economic History, Iberian Peninsula, Latin America | Tagged: 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, 2000s, Atlantic, bank, crisis, economic geography, finance, financial history, Iberian Peninsula, industry, institutions, Latin America, private finance, public finance, state-making, trade, transports |
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Posted by Manuel A. Bautista-González
September 21, 2009
Today, Chris [I couldn’t find his last name] at History of Economics Playground posted a note on a recent seminar in Duke University about Krugman’s article on the state of economics (mentioned here).
Speaking of Krugman, he wrote a small post on the history of contemporary macroeconomics. It’s worth reading if you already read the aforementioned article.
And here’s a Short History of Small Times in Wall Street by David Silver, former president of the Investment Company Institute (1977-1991), on the legality of the profits of reducing the time invested in buying and selling stocks.
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America, Economic History, history of economics, United States | Tagged: 1900s, public finance, stock-market |
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Posted by Manuel A. Bautista-González
September 21, 2009
Gelderblom, Oscar & Joost Jonker (2009) “The Conditional Miracle. Institutional change, fiscal policy, bond markets and interest rates in Holland 1514-1713”, Utrecht University Working Papers.



This paper is available online (pdf).
Traditional explanation of the low issuing rate on public debt in the Dutch Republic emphasize the dramatic fall that occurred around 1600, but fail to explain why this level kept on falling from 1640 to 1725, until it had reached 2.5% (p.2). Read the rest of this entry »
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Early Modern, Economic History, Europe, reading notes | Tagged: 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, annuities, bonds, capital market, debt, finance, financial revolution, Holland, Netherlands, public debt, public finance |
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Posted by Ben
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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Posted by Ben