Capitals of Capital
The Rise and Fall of International Financial Centres 1780–2009

This updated edition of the first comparative history of international financial centres incorporates the crisis gripping capitals of capital today.

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

9780521144049, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 March 2010

408 pages, 10 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.54 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

This is the first history of international financial centres and of the major stake that they now represent in the global economy. Youssef Cassis, one of the world's leading financial historians, provides a fascinating comparative history of the most important centres that constitute the capitals of capital - New York, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. The book explores the dynamics of the rise and decline of these great centres from the beginning of the industrial age up to the present, setting them throughout in their economic, political, social, and cultural context and drawing on concepts from financial economics in its analysis of events. This paperback edition has been fully updated to take account of the challenges posed by the financial collapse of 2007–8 and offers the longer term framework necessary to understand the ongoing economic crisis facing capitals of capital today.

Introduction
1. The age of private bankers, 1780–1840
2. The concentration of capital, 1840–75
3. A globalised world, 1875–1914
4. Wars and depression, 1914–45
5. Growth and regulation, 1945–80
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]