Government Debts and Financial Markets in Europe
Editor: Fausto Piola Caselli
Financial History
978 1 85196 962 3: 216x138mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 558 8
Studying the history of public debt represents a fascinating means to investigate the role of public finances in the making of European states both at a national and regional level. Government Debts and Financial Markets brings together essays by leading historians of economic and financial history. It illuminates the relationships between government indebtedness and the development of financial markets in Europe from the late Middle Ages to the late twentieth century.
Since medieval times loans were launched by town governments to yield money for wars. Soon, however, in spite of some sensational bankruptcies, public debt became a trustable tool of political economy and was applied to feed state assets in place of levying new and unpopular tax increases. In the main European cities, government bonds became freely marketable. Trading procedures, guarantees and techniques became well known by investors at a national and international level. The increasing efficiency of financial markets allowed governments to raise money at decreasing costs, whilst savers could use long term public loans as a fruitful alternative to traditional land investments. Financial markets became the best place for allowing comparisons between private and public loans in terms of safety, rates of interest and refunds.
Sample pages
- Government Debts and Financial Markets in Europe: Index
- Government Debts and Financial Markets in Europe: Introduction
Readership
Economic History, Financial History
Contents
- Fausto Piola Caselli, ‘Introduction’
- Andreas Ranft, ‘The Financial Administration of North Hanseatic Cities in the Late Middle Ages: Development, Organization and Politics’
- Luciano Pezzolo, ‘Government Debts and Credit Markets in Renaissance Italy’
- David Alonso García, ‘Government Debts and Financial Markets in Castile between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries’
- Giuseppe De Luca, ‘Government Debt and Financial Markets: Exploring Pro-Cycle Effects in Northern Italy during the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries’
- José Ignacio Andrés Ucendo, ‘Government Policies and the Development of Financial Markets: The Case of Madrid in the Seventeenth Century’
- Carlos Álvarez Nogal, ‘The Role Played by Short-Term Credit in the Spanish Monarchy’s Finances’
- Gaetano Sabatini, ‘From Subordination to Autonomy: Public Debt Policies and the Creation of a Self-Ruled Financial Market in the Kingdom of Naples in the Long Run (1500–1800)’
- Fausto Piola Caselli, ‘Public Debt in the Papal States: Financial Market and Government Strategies in the Long Run (Seventeenth–Nineteenth Centuries)’
- Anne Dubet, ‘Towards a New Public Credit Policy in Eighteenth-Century Spain: the Introduction of the Tesorería Mayor de Guerra (1703–6)’
- François R. Velde, ‘French Public Finance between 1683 and 1726’
- Christophe Chamley, ‘Long-Term War Loans and Market Expectations in England, 1743–50’
- Patrick Karl O’ Brien, ‘Mercantilist Institutions for the Pursuit of Power with Profit: The Management of Britain’s National Debt, 1756–1815’
- Giuseppe Conti, ‘Italian Government Debt Sustainability in the Long Run, 1861–2000’
- Hans-Peter Ullmann, ‘Times of Wasteful Abundance: The Apogee of the Fiscal State in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s’
- David Stasavage, ‘Conclusion: Final Remarks’
Related titles
