In the present paper we propose that in states with relatively weak central authorities, decision makers had to develop market oriented organisation solutions to successfully face a grave external threat, and these solutions proved to be efficient. Using an interdisciplinary approach that...

How did modern and centralized fiscal institutions emerge? We develop a model that explains (i) why pre-industrial states relied on private individuals to collect taxes; (ii) why after 1600 both England and France moved from competitive methods for collecting revenues to allocating the right to...

Law and finance theory emphasizes the negative consequences of civil law on financial and, subsequently, economic development. Before the Revolution, French territory was strictly divided according to the legal regime. Since the Middle-Ages, the southern part of France was under Justinian civil...

Research on the practices of the moneylender, a permanent yet shadowy fixture of society, has focused on England in the early modern period. This paper, however, examines the business operations of Costantino Bogdano, a Greek moneylender active in Venice (c. 1800-44). At a time of transition in...

Comparative analysis of the markets for land, labor, and capital in north-central Italy and the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period reveals that urbanization in itself was not the crucial variable in the quality and effect of developing factor markets. More...

This paper assess the freedom of capital movements between France and Italy in the late 19 century looking at the market for the most important Italian bond, the Rendita Italiana. Taking into account long time series of Rendita prices both in France and in Italy the paper looks at the...

The ownership of German corporations is quite different today from that of Anglo-American firms. How did this come about? To what extent is it attributable to regulation? A specially constructed data set on financing and ownership of German corporations from the end of the 19th century reveals...

This article reviews the first English edition of Prof. Jesús Huerta de Soto´s book `Dinero, Crédito Bancario y Ciclos Económicos´ which first appeared in Spain in 1998.

This study wanted to pinpoint the different securities transactions’ channels in France, which are quite specific compared to other countries.As a matter of fact, the Paris Bourse could not be well explained without the free market and the deposit banks'transactions. This organisation leads to...