Finance and Financiers in European History 1880–1960

A highly distinguished team of contributors addresses the complex and crucial role of finance in European history during the period 1880–1960.

Youssef Cassis (Edited by)

9780521893732, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 June 2002

464 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.74 kg

"This volume, to its credit, raises as many interesting questions as it answers." Journal of Economic History

In this major 'state of the art' survey, a highly distinguished team of contributors addresses the complex and crucial role of finance in European history during the period 1880–1960. Throughout the volume a comparative, global perspective is used in the analysis of a problem that may in fact be perceived at four levels. Firstly, the economic: what was the weight of the financial sector in a given economy? Secondly, the social: what was the specific position of the financial élites in society? Thirdly, the political: what was the impact of financial interests in politics? And finally the international: how was Europe's position as the 'world's banker' established, then gradually eroded?. Six European countries (the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland) are singled out for particular attention, and the rise of extra-European centres of financial power (notably USA and Japan) is considered in an extended concluding section. Both subjects and authors are truly international, and Finance and Financiers in European History makes a substantial contribution to an area of economic activity that is returning forcefully to the historical agenda.

Preface
1. Introduction: the weight of finance in European societies Y. Cassis
2. Banking and industrialisation: Rondo Cameron twenty years on Sidney Pollard and Dieter Ziegler
Part I. Financial Sector and Economy: 3. The domestic commercial banks and the City of London, 1870–1939 P. L. Cottrell
4. Banks and state in France from the 1880s to the 1930s: the impossible advance of the banks Andre Gueslin
5. An overview on the role of the large German banks up to 1914 Richard Tilly
6. Banks and economic development: comments Harold James
Part II. Financial Elites and Society: 7. Financial elites and British society, 1880–1950 M. J. Daunton
8. Bankers in French society 1860s–1960s Alain Plessis
9. The banker in German society, 1890 to 1930 Dolores L. Augustine
10. Financial élites and society: comments Jose Harris
Part III. Financial Interests and Politics: 11. The influence of the City over British economic policy, c.1880–1960 E. H. H. Green
12. The political influence of bankers and financiers in France in the years 1850–1960 Hubert Bonin
13. Banks and banking in Germany after the First World War: strategies of defence Gerald D. Feldman
14. Banks and bankers in the German interwar depression Harold James
15. Finance and politics: comments M. J. Daunton
Part IV. Finance and Financiers in Smaller European Countries: 16. Finance and financiers in Switzerland, 1880–1960 Y. Cassis and Jakob Tanner (with Fabienne Debrunner)
17. Finance and financiers in Belgium, 1880–1940 G. Kurgan vann Hentenryk
18. The political economy of banking: retail banking and corporate finance in Sweden, 1850–1939 Mats Larsson and Hakan Lindgren
Part V. The Rise of Extra-European Financial Centres: 19. Money and power: the shift from Great Britain to the United States Kathleen Burk
20. The Yokohama Specie Bank during the period of the restored Gold Standard in Japan (January 1930–December 1931) Hiroaki Yamaziki
21. International financial centres in Asia, the Middle East and Australia: a historical perspective Geoffrey Jones
22. Extra-financial centres: comments Mira Wilkins.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]