When money-managers were searching for an investment offering inflation protection and a shortage of commercial properties existed in early-1970s Britain, a building boom got underway. This boom would have been constrained by a lack of credit, at least if only the large UK banks had been available to provide financing. They were not the…
There were several banks conducting both British and Dutch business in the second half of the 18th century. A few of them failed in a financial panic in 1772-73 afflicting both countries. They existed because the financial links between the two places were substantial. After Britain became a more stable place in which to…
Timing is everything. In the mid-1820s, Greece was fighting for its independence from the Ottoman Empire. In London, the market for foreign sovereign bonds, some of them of low quality, was booming. So, Greece was able to secure borrowed money in London even when it was in the midst of a war of independence,…
The 1690s saw major developments supporting London’s role as a financial center. During that decade, the Bank of England was founded, the government was raising larger loans to fund a war against France, and the stock market was growing. The latter was driven by the founding of many new companies and initial public offerings…
Amsterdam was the first city in the world with an active stock market. In some respects, it was a minor market, with a small number of participants and few publicly-traded shares. However, the practices of participants and the instruments with which they traded would be surprisingly familiar to us today. Documenting the functioning of…
After the French Revolution, the advancing armies of France’s new militant republic distressed many in Europe and some fared far worse than the continent’s merchants during these years. Nonetheless, merchants and commerce were displaced by the wars that lasted more than two decades. Yet, whatever the destruction brought by the wars, the cities that…
Communist countries in Europe developed large planning bureaucracies and the infrastructure needed to confirm and force compliance with plans. Yet, bureaucracies are not entirely fungible. These systems proved unnecessary in the new capitalist economy. However, a capitalist economy does require one bureaucracy that is not needed, at least not in anything like its usual…
While not uncontested by other Italian city-states, Venice was a candidate for the foremost financial center of Europe in the 15th century. It was not home to many financial institutions but the ones it did possess were among the largest in Europe. These were banks tied to big merchant families, often noble families. Yet,…
Various Italian city-states excelled in banking as it existed in 15th century Europe. In or around this period, Siena, Florence, Venice, and Genoa each were home to some of the largest European financial institutions of their day. Some lasted for over a century, others for only a small fraction of that time. Though the…
France was the setting of one of the largest early experiments with paper money in Europe. This experiment usually refers to the paper money introduced in France by the Scottish economist and banker John Law in the mid-to-late 1710s. This was not the true introduction of paper money in France though. The country used…
