The Origins and Development of Financial Markets and Institutions
From the Seventeenth Century to the Present

Leading historians examine how financial innovations have challenged established institutional arrangements from the seventeenth century to the present.

Jeremy Atack (Edited by), Larry Neal (Edited by)

9780521895170, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 March 2009

496 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3 cm, 0.92 kg

Review of the hardback: 'The credit crisis in the United States has created new doubts, not least in academic circles, about the advantages of sophisticated financial markets. This collection by Atack and Neal is therefore all the more timely as a reminder that financial development, done right, solves more problems than it creates. In its use of history it is also a reminder of the need to avoid fighting the last war. Financial institutions and markets are in a continuous state of flux and the consequences of regulatory responses are not always as expected. There are lessons here, in other words, not just for historians but for policymakers and investors.' Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley

Collectively, mankind has never had it so good despite periodic economic crises of which the current sub-prime crisis is merely the latest example. Much of this success is attributable to the increasing efficiency of the world's financial institutions as finance has proved to be one of the most important causal factors in economic performance. In a series of insightful essays, financial and economic historians examine how financial innovations from the seventeenth century to the present have continually challenged established institutional arrangements, forcing change and adaptation by governments, financial intermediaries, and financial markets. Where these have been successful, wealth creation and growth have followed. When they failed, growth slowed and sometimes economic decline has followed. These essays illustrate the difficulties of co-ordinating financial innovations in order to sustain their benefits for the wider economy, a theme that will be of interest to policy makers as well as economic historians.

List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
1. Financial innovations and crises: the view backwards from Northern Rock Jeremy Atack
2. An economic explanation of the early Bank of Amsterdam, debasement, bills of exchange and the emergence of the first Central Bank Stephen Quinn and William Roberds
3. With a view to hold: the emergence of institutional investors on the Amsterdam securities market during the 17th and 18th centuries Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker
4. Was John Law's system a bubble? The Mississippi Bubble revisited François R. Velde
5. Sir George Caswall vs. the Duke of Portland: financial contracts and litigation in the wake of the South Sea Bubble Gary S. Shea
6. The Bell Jar: commercial interest rates between two revolutions, 1688–1789 Marc Flandreau, Christophe Galimard, Clemens Jobst and Pilar Nogues Marco
7. Comparing the UK and US financial systems, 1790–1830 Richard Sylla
8. Natural experiments in financial reform in the nineteenth century, the Davis and Gallman analysis Larry Neal
9. Regulatory changes and the development of the US banking market, 1870–1914: a study of profit rates and risk in national banks Richard J. Sullivan
10. Anticipating the stock market crash of 1929: the view from the floor of the stock exchange Eugene N. White
11. The development of 'non-traditional' open market operations: lessons from FDR's Silver Purchase Program Richard C. K. Burdekin and Marc D. Weidenmier
12. The interwar shocks to US-Cuban trade relations: a view through sugar company stock price data Alan Dye and Richard Sicotte
13. Central Bank reaction functions during the inter-war Gold Standard: a view from the periphery Kirsten Wandschneider
14. Monetary policy and equity price booms: historical cross-country evidence Michael Bordo and David Wheelock
15. Lessons from history for the twenty-first century Larry Neal
Index.

Subject Areas: Finance [KFF], Economic history [KCZ], Macroeconomics [KCB], 21st century history: from c 2000 - [HBLX], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL]