In the early days of government borrowing, public borrowing went hand-in-hand with estates and inheritances. Bonds and annuities, both means by which states in early modern Europe borrowed, were also convenient ways of transferring wealth to widows and heirs. Perhaps nowhere was this association clearer than in London, especially in the 17th century. The City…
In the 1970s, many countries were hobbled by the energy crises of 1973-74 and 1979. Of course, some made out very well. Oil producing countries spurred along by ‘resource nationalism’, particularly those that did not themselves slash production to keep prices elevated, saw an oil windfall transform their economies. However, oil is a volatile basis…
In 1850, Japan was an economy intentionally closed off from foreign trade. Even Japanese merchants and bankers were not well regarded in the country, let along foreign ones. By 1900, Japan had come a long way industrially and financially, possessing a developed banking system and large industrial firms. Shibusawa Eiichi was responsible for much of…
Financial development comes in waves, often washing up in the same place, whether 17th century Holland or 18th century London. In the Late Middle Ages, the centers of European finance were largely in Italy. Many innovations in finance during this era, from bills of exchange to insurance and double-entry bookkeeping to public bonds, either originated…
A transcontinental railroad across mid-19th century America was a colossal project, far larger than any American railroad built before then. While campaigned for and debated for years, work got underway while the country was in the midst of civil war. Trepidation on the part of investors meant it hardly got off the ground at all.…
For the entirety of the 19th century, Paris had two stock exchanges. One was the official Paris Bourse, relatively well-regulated and selective in its listing of securities. The other was an unregulated market called the Coulisse. The Paris market was big enough for both exchanges and perhaps needed both of them, in contrast to the…
During the First World War, governments were financially strained to an unprecedented degree by the costs of war. Across Europe, governments introduced new taxes, including income taxes, suspended the link between gold and paper money, and raised new loans by appealing directly to the patriotism of the public. While these drastic maneuvers in times of…
In early modern Europe, currency was far less standardized than it is today. There were several different metals with monetary significance: gold, silver, and copper. Countries usually struck coins from all of these metals and often combinations of them together. In addition to local coins, circulating in any given place would be foreign coins made…
In April 1906, an earthquake struck San Francisco and the event was a disaster for the city, the largest in California at the time, and for insurance globally. The tangible costs of the disaster were mammoth and the damage was felt (figuratively-speaking) far away from San Francisco, in the rest of America, Britain, Germany,…
The economic fate of Argentina, a foodstuff exporter supporting one of the richest populations just over a century ago, is well known. New Zealand’s late 19th and early 20th century history is similar in many respects. Like Argentina, faraway New Zealand was also exposed to the dramatic fluctuations of commodity prices and financial conditions intrinsic…
Throughout the 18th century, French public finances teetered on the brink. The state then found itself in deep financial ruin within a few years of the beginning of the French Revolution, culminating in a default on the debt in 1796-97. With this, the outlook for the next century would hardly seem promising. The 19th century…
The Panic of 1857 was just another of the tumultuous 19th century in American finance. In the western United States, it had begun two years earlier in San Francisco. At the start of 1855, the city still seemed to be booming, growing from a population not much greater than zero a decade earlier into a…
