Financial History (History)

Metropolitan British governance in the long eighteenth century, and thus the security of Britain's evolving empire, has been viewed increasingly by modern historians as having rested on a complex matrix of administrative and fiscal institutions that developed most notably during the Glorious Revolution and its aftermath and evolved subsequently over the long period of strategic rivalry and military conflict with Britain's rivals in Europe and around the globe. Historians have labelled this model of government-an increasingly centralized and efficient one, at least in comparative terms with Britain's major rival, France-the 'fiscal-military state'. The so-called 'sinews of power' of the British fiscal-military state were at the heart of ideological conflict in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in all parts of the British Atlantic World and beyond. Both defenders and critics of the British governmental system in this era of revolutions in the Atlantic world stressed the crucial importance of the fiscal-military state in deciding the fate of both Britain and its rivals. Competing historical interpretations of the growth, impact and durability of the fiscal-military state, shaped by the context of the challenges of the American and French Revolutions, were central to this key political battle. What was ultimately at stake in this argument? Quite simply, the very future of the political, social and economic structures that constituted British governance, and thus, in turn, the future shape of the broader international order.

This contribution presents a case study on one of the stablest and most developed financial environments of early modern Europe, the Venetian Republic, in a challenging period of financial instability which found its roots in monetary speculation. This instability nevertheless did not give way to real episodes of crisis, thanks to the strict public control over Venetian financial market. Being monetary policy a major problem for pre-industrial governments, the reaction was prompt and accurate enough to deter more serious consequences, but was indeed put into practice in financial markets. The solid (and long-tested) financial environment that Venice enjoyed in the early 17th century – when the city was still a lively international hub, until the eve of the plague in 1631 – surely helped to cope with difficulties; this case, then, can also be assessed as a proof for the efficacy of Venetian financial policies. The case study refers to a single – but enough well documented – attempt to speculate on the value of gold coins in Venice. It is more appropriately a micro-case, since it took place (with the immediate reply of government) in the space of a few days in September 1608, but it represents the usual conduct on behalf of early modern Venetian government, creating a dialogue between the offices and the actors involved. This strategy proved successful and probably helps to explain the long resilience to decline in the 17th century.

This paper obtains monthly implied volatilities of the New York securities market from 1890 to 1934 from interest rate differentials. The implied volatilities did predict the 1929 crash but no other financial crisis. The historical implied volatilities are similar to their modern (2008-2019) counterparts. I find that before 1924, implied volatilities were autoregressive and seasonal, and that after 1924 these series behave in a non-stationary manner, echoing results by Mankiw, Miron and Weil (1987) for interest rates. The paper uses a Heckman method to correct for censored six month interest rate data due to anti usury laws from that period.

The property market was a key economic sector in ancient Rome. Roman society was strongly shaped by patrimonial mentality and – as happens in modern societies – also largely influenced by political agendas, speculative enterprises and financial crises. The study of this multifaceted sector requires a deep understanding of cultural and normative frameworks, institutions and economic structures, but also cross-disciplinary approaches and comparative research of other pre-industrial and modern societies. The conference will be enriched by economic theory, discuss new evidence and perspectives, and bring together current research on a wide variety of business and managerial activities, motivations and social aspects that concerned both urban and rural, residential and commercial properties. Ultimately, the event aims to provide tools and ideas that inspire future research in ancient and comparative ‘real estate studies'.

Organisers: Marta García Morcillo (University of Roehampton, London) and Cristina Rosillo-López (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain), in collaboration with the Institute of Classical Studies.

This conference has been generously funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Royal Economic Society, the Economic History Society, the Institute of Classical Studies, the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla) and the University of Roehampton (London).


Date
25 March 2020, 9.00am - 27 March 2020, 1.00pm

Type
Conference / Symposium
Venue
Montague Room, G26, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

For more information and programme, visit the ICS conference site:
https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/event/21471

To register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-real-estate-market-in-the-roman-world-tickets-92471457619

Conference Organisation:
Catherine Brégianni, Modern Greek History Research Centre, Academy of Athens,
Bettina Severin-Barboutie,
University of Giessen
Venue: 7th February,  2020
Academy of Athens,
Panepistimiou 28, 106 79 Athens
http://www.academyofathens.gr/en://

We welcome paper proposals for our session on Resources for health and the health of resources: financing healthcare institutions in the long run, which has been accepted for the World Economic History Congress 2021 (Paris).

The session focuses on how financial resources were collected and allocated in order to fund and run healthcare institutions. The aim is to examine which ‘business models’ were better able to meet the large and increasing costs, caused by population pressure and secular trends, and which factors determined the emergence of diverse types of financing healthcare in the long run (14th - 21st cc). Over time public, private and mixed forms of supporting unraveled: historical evidence shows for instance the changing role played by governments, shifting from the ‘minimum State’ before 19th century, to the central function played by the State later, when it became the chief provider of public services including also healthcare. When medical care services were provided to large proportions of the population, costs increased. This was also due to the fact that because technology initially hardly affected healthcare, its productivity increased only slightly, keeping unit costs high, as Baumol masterly proved. Attention will therefore also go to how more advanced healthcare institutions managed to finance and adopt scientific and technological innovations. Proposals that allow to widen chronologically and geographically this subject are appreciated.

We especially welcome submissions dealing with topics (but not-exclusively):

- Financing and managing health and welfare : modes, practices and institutions

- Profit or non-profit healthcare institutions

- Healthcare for all? Private vs public investments/resources

- Accounting for health: costs, revenues, balance sheet

- Defining efficiency/effectiveness of healthcare service

- Technological change and labour productivity in healthcare

- The impact of healthcare spread on social and economic development

Please send an abstract of max 500 words, together with a short bio (no longer than 1 page) to marcella.lorenzini@unimi.it, matteo.landoni@unicatt.it, jaco.zuijderduijn@ekh.lu.se. The deadline for submitting proposals will be 30th June 2020. Acceptance or rejection will be notified by 15th September 2020.

This study focuses on the accounting and auditing system of the Kingdom of Sicily during the reign of Alfonso V of Aragon (1416–58), known as the Magnanimous. In particular, it discusses the operation of and the relationships between the two offices entrusted with the management of the kingdom’s accounts: the century-old magna curia rationum and the new office of the conservator maior regii patrimonii (established in 1414), modelled on the Castilian contaduría mayor de hacienda. This essay adopts the approach associated with the ‘archival turn’, to show that studying the accounting and bookkeeping practices, as well as their developments and innovations, is crucial to understand the operation of the Sicilian auditing system and its function in the broader political system of the Crown of Aragon. As a result of the perpetual state of conflict generated by the political agenda of Alfonso the Magnanimous in Italy and of his increasing war funding demands, the Aragonese strategically exploited the new accounting and bookkeeping practice of the conservator to increase royal influence over the local financial apparatus. Relying on the exceptional amount of original accounting and financial records preserved at the State Archives of Palermo, this study is the first detailed examination of the auditing system and accounting practice of late-medieval Sicily. At the same time, the analysis shows that the operation and the transformations of the accounting system of a polity such as Sicily is fully intelligible only if examined in connection with the broader government of the political union of which that polity was a constituent member.

In this paper we show that Portugal benefitted from comparatively low-interest rates from the 13th century onwards, well before the generalised drop in interest rates in Europe. Contrary to the thesis that frontier economies struggle with high-interest rates and scarcity of capital, we find that the country's low and stable interest rates can be explained by its wide availability of land, combined with monetary stability and a favourable institutional network. These conclusions are built upon an entirely new dataset of interest rates and returns on capital for Portugal in the period 1230–1500.

Öz: Osmanlı Devleti, 19. yüzyılda birçok alanda olduğu gibi eğitimde de modernleşme hamlelerine girişmiş ve bunu Dersaadet dışında taşraya da yaymak istemiştir. Bu nedenle taşrada rüşdiye mektepleri kurulmuştur. Modern eğitimi çevreye yayma isteği ve yeni ihdas edilen vergiler yayılmayı hızlandırmıştır. Ancak daha sonra, maliyenin bozulması ile birlikte bu gelirlerin önemli bir kısmının yükseköğrenime ve Dersaadet'e aktarılması, taşrada modern eğitime büyük darbe vurmuştur. Bu çalışmada devrin eğitim ve maliye ilişkisi, Malatya Rüşdiye Mektebi örneği üzerinden incelenmiş; dönemin genel şartlarının taşraya nasıl yansıdığı ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Abstract: The Ottoman State in the 19th century started to the efforts of modernisation in education just like in many other areas and she wanted to transport it out of Dersaadet namely to the other provinces. For this reason, she found Rusdiye schools in the provincial areas. The will to spread the modern education to the periphery and newly introduced taxes accelarated the expansion. However, later, with the collapse of the finance of the Empire, the transfer of the most of these incomes to the higher education and Dersaadet negatively affected the modern education in the provinces. In this study, the relationship between the education and finance of the period is investigated under the example of Malatya Rüşdiye school, and it is discussed how the general conditions of the period affected the province. Giriş Dünyada hayatın ancak iktisat üzerine kurulu olduğu tezi hiç de yabana atılacak bir düşünce değildir. Hayatın iktisattan bağımsız bir alanı yok gibidir. Maarif ise hem iktisattan etkilenen hem de iktisadı etkileyen bir unsur olarak ayrı bir öneme haizdir. İktisadi gelişme ve kalkınmanın gerçekleşmesi ile eğitimden istenen ürünün alınması arasında çok sıkı bir bağıntı (korelasyon) vardır. 19. yüzyılda Osmanlı yönetici ve aydınları maliyenin ve maarifin durumu ile ikisi arasındaki sıkı ilişkiye dikkat çeken yazılar kaleme almışlardır. Bunlardan birisi olan Namık Kemal, maarifin servete etkisini şöyle dile getirmiştir:

This article analyses the reactions that foreign credit provoked in the Spanish political culture of the early nineteenth century. The international indebtedness derived from the acute need of resources of the Spanish treasury in the context of a very weak position of the country in the international order. Resistances to credit fluctuated between the public denounce of the subordination of Spain to foreign powers and the new morality that this new financial device was accused of creating.

Авторское резюме Впервые в русскоязычной нумизматической литературе публикуется анализ чеканки серебряной монеты в королевстве Норвегия на протяжении трех столетий-от завершающего этапа эпохи викингов до утери страной государственного суверенитета. Представлен каталог номиналов, рассмотрены два этапа финансовой политики. Первый охватывает переходный период от эпохи викингов к Средневековью (1050-1080). Второй касается суверенных денежных эмиссий в средневековом государстве (1080-1397). Делается вывод о том, что важным стимулом развития денежного дела Норвегии являлся переход от военной экспансии к широкомасштабной международной торговле. Отмечено влияние эпидемии чумы на прекращение работы последнего монетного двора в Осло. Использованы правила письменного перевода имен, принятые в современной Норвегии. Ключевые слова: пеннинг, полпеннинга, четверть пеннинга, брактеат, эпоха викингов, Кальмарская уния, «норвежская империя», «Закат Норвегии».

Abstract For the first time in the Russian-language numismatic literature, an in-depth analysis of the three centuries' silver coinage in the Kingdom of Norway has been published. It is limited by the political, military and monetary time framework from the final stage of the Viking Age to the loss of Norwegian state sovereignty in 1397 (the Kalmar Union). The catalog of denominations is presented, two stages of a financial policy are considered. The first is the transition period from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages (1050-1080). The second stage is about the sovereign money issues in the medieval state (1080-1397). The author has concluded that an important stimulus for the development of the monetary policies was the transition from the Viking military expansion to a large-scale international trade. The effect of the plague epidemic on the last Norwegian mint's collapse is underlined.

Pengepolitikken i Norge fra slutten av vikingtiden til Kalmarunionen (1050-1397)
Artikkelen tar for seg det norske myntvesenet fra slutten av vikingtiden til Kalmarunionen i 1397. Med dette publiseres for første gang i russiskspråklig numismatisk litteratur norske mynter, utmyntet i regjeringstiden til en rekke norske konger. Den første delen gjelder utmyntinger i overgangsperioden fra vikingtiden til middelalderen (1050-1080). Det andre gjelder utmynting i middelalderstaten (1080-1397). Det konkluderes med at overgangen fra den militære og politiske ekspansjonen på 900- og 1000-tallet til internasjonal handel i stor skala, var en viktig pådriver i utviklingen av pengepolitikken i Norge. Svartedauen var avgjørende for at det siste myntverket i Oslo ble lagt ned. Oversettelsen av norske navn til russisk er gjort i henhold til moderne norsk uttale.
Nøkkelord: penning, halvpenning, kvartpenning, brakteat, vikingtiden, Kalmarunionen, Norgesveldet, «Norges nedgang»

O presente capítulo examina a relação entre fiscalidade, redistribuição de recursos, e poder senhorial em Portugal durante a primeira metade do século XVI, usando como caso de estudo os descendentes masculinos do rei D. Manuel I (r.1495-1521) - os infantes. Pretende responder a duas questões centrais: a) de que modo a monarquia redistribuiu recursos entre os seus dependentes, desde as doações dos senhorios ao subsequente financiamento anual das respectivas casas; b) até que ponto a evolução das reformas das instituições régias afectou o poder de redistribuição e manutenção de uma considerável rede clientelar, alimentada pelo favor régio e/ou principesco. A literatura especializada indicou por várias vezes que a política fiscal desenvolvida pelos Avis durante o século XV (especialmente no caso das sisas) permitiu um alargamento do respectivo poder redistributivo, que acabou por beneficiar, entre outros, os descendentes dos monarcas D. João I (r.1383-1433) e D. Duarte (r.1433-1437). Assuntos não tão bem estudados residem em saber se os descendentes manuelinos teriam eventualmente benefícios semelhantes, ou mesmo se os efeitos das reformas institucionais desta primeira metade de Quinhentos tiveram efeitos nesta base redistributiva de ordem régia. Argumenta-se que, durante este período, não ocorreram mudanças substanciais na maneira como estes recursos eram redistribuídos. A excepção reside no incremento da tendência régia para diversificar as origens do financiamento aos seus membros, dado um conjunto de variáveis como as referidas reformas institucionais, a importância do comércio de além-mar, as consequências da política matrimonial, e a interferência régia na jurisdição eclesiástica. Como tal, e para demonstrar este argumento, a análise incidirá nas duas questões acima mencionadas, relacionadas com a redistribuição de recursos às casas dos infantes e com os efeitos da evolução da fiscalidade na manutenção das respectivas clientelas régias e/ou principescas

The 1452 monetary reform ended the period of significant currency transformations in medieval Wallachia. In 1451-1452, the Danubian Principality balancing between the Ottomans and the Hungarians, managed to launch the law and monetary reforms as well as a foreign policy change.