Capitals of Capital
A History of International Financial Centres 1780–2005

The first comparative history of the major international financial centres from New York to Tokyo.

Youssef Cassis (Author), Jacqueline Collier (Translated by)

9780521845359, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 November 2006

408 pages, 10 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.77 kg

'Anyone interested in the historical background of the world's most important international financial centers will prize this book enormously.' Journal of Interdisciplinary History

International financial centres have come to represent a major economic stake. Yet no historical study has been devoted to them. Professor Cassis, a leading financial historian, attempts to fill this gap by providing a comparative history of the most important centres that constitute the capitals of capital - New York, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore - from the beginning of the industrial age up to the present. The book has been conceived as a reflection on the dynamics of the rise and decline of international financial centres, setting them in their economic, political, social, and cultural context. While rooted in a strong and lively historical narrative, it draws on the concepts of financial economics in its analysis of events. It should widely appeal to business and finance professionals as well as to scholars and students in financial and economic history.

Introduction
1. The age of private bankers, 1780–1840
2. The concentration of capital, 1840–1875
3. A globalised world, 1875–1914
4. Wars and depression, 1914–1945
5. Growth and regulation, 1945–1980
6. Globalisation, innovation and crisis, 1980–2009
Conclusion
Glossary.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], International finance [KCLF], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], General & world history [HBG]