Government Debts and Financial Markets in Europe

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Editor: Fausto Piola Caselli

Financial History

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

Introduction
1 ‘The Financial Administration of North Hanseatic Cities in the Late Middle Ages: Development, Organization and Politics’ – Andreas Ranft
2 ‘Government Debts and Credit Markets in Renaissance Italy’ – Luciano Pezzolo
3 ‘Government Debts and Financial Markets in Castile between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries' – David Alonso García
4 ‘Government Debt and Financial Markets: Exploring Pro-Cycle Effects in Northern Italy during the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries’ – Giuseppe De Luca
5 ‘Government Policies and the Development of Financial Markets: The Case of Madrid in the Seventeenth Century’ – José Ignacio Andrés Ucendo
6 ‘The Role Played by Short-Term Credit in the Spanish Monarchy’s Finances’ – Carlos Álvarez Nogal
7 ‘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)’ – Gaetano Sabatini
8 ‘Public Debt in the Papal States: Financial Market and Government Strategies in the Long Run (Seventeenth–Nineteenth Centuries)’ – Fausto Piola Caselli
9 ‘Towards a New Public Credit Policy in Eighteenth-Century Spain: the Introduction of the Tesorería Mayor de Guerra (1703–6)’ – Anne Dubet
10 ‘French Public Finance between 1683 and 1726’ – François R. Velde
11 ‘Long-Term War Loans and Market Expectations in England, 1743–50’ – Christophe Chamley
12 ‘Mercantilist Institutions for the Pursuit of Power with Profit: The Management of Britain’s National Debt, 1756–1815’ – Patrick Karl O’ Brien
13 ‘Italian Government Debt Sustainability in the Long Run, 1861–2000’ – Giuseppe Conti
14 ‘Times of Wasteful Abundance: The Apogee of the Fiscal State in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s’ – Hans-Peter Ullmann
Conclusion: Final Remarks – David Stasavage

Related titles

• Camille Gutt and Postwar International Finance
• Convergence and Divergence of National Financial Systems: Evidence from the Gold Standards, 1871–1971
• Financial Markets and the Banking Sector: Roles and Responsibilities in a Global World
• Markets and Growth in Early Modern Europe
• Money in the Pre-Industrial World: Bullion, Debasements and Coin Substitutes
• Reforming the World Monetary System: Fritz Machlup and the Bellagio Group
• Taxation and Debt in the Early Modern City
• The US National Debt, 1787–1900

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