From 1770 to 1914, the British Government collected weekly price and quantity data for all types of grain traded in many market towns; these ‘Corn Returns’ were published in the London Gazette. We computerised the data published 1770-1864, totalling around 6 million data points. Here we...

We examine the importance of geographical proximity to coal as a factor underpinning comparative European economic development during the Industrial Revolution. Our analysis exploits geographical variation in city and coalfield locations, alongside temporal variation in the availability of...

Analysing 474 cases of firms going public in the German capital between 1892 and 1913, we show that innovative firms could rely on the Berlin stock market as a source of financing. The data also reveal that initial public offerings (IPO) of innovative firms were characterized by particularly low...

Contingent sovereign debt has the potential to create important welfare gains--but actual issuance is rare. Using hand-collected archival data, we examine the first known case of large-scale issuance of contingent sovereign debt in history. Philip II of Spain entered into hundreds of contracts...

If in general, financial deepening aids economic growth, then financial repression should be harmful. We use a natural experiment – the change in the English usury laws in 1714 – to analyse the effects of interest rate restrictions. Based on a sample of individual loan transactions, we...

Where transport costs were falling, were the new economic geography forces for industry agglomeration and dispersion at work in the movement of industry in pre-1931 Britain? This Paper examines the issue empirically using a general model that nests the Heckscher-Ohlin factor endowment with new...

This paper argues that the role of universal banks in German industrialization has been over-emphasized. The contribution of universal banks to the financing of railway investment was overshadowed by that of the German states. The distinctive features of the relationship between universal banks...

The Paper draws its motivation from the observation that, three years into the single currency, EMU financial markets are making only slow progress towards integration and from the belief that economic history can offer useful insight as to the causes of the phenomenon. In this vein, we...

This paper exploits arbitrage conditions for bills of exchange with different maturities to provide new evidence on commercial interest rates in Amsterdam, London, and Paris during the 18th century. The lesson that emerges is that commercial interest rates were very low in all three centers and...

Philip II of Spain accumulated debts equivalent to 60% of GDP. He also failed to honor them four times. We ask what allowed the sovereign to borrow much while defaulting often. Earlier work emphasized either banker irrationality or the importance of sanctions. Using new archival data, we show...