Studies on social behaviour, habitus, values and norms of bankers are a desideratum of research. Therefore, it is only justifiable with reservations to define the banker more closely as a social type. This contribution attempts to answer the question of the extent to which German bankers behaved...

This article provides the first in-depth account on the organisational history of the Berlin Bourse based on archival evidence. It demonstrates that the microstructures of the Berlin Bourse basically corresponded to the needs and activities of the largest commercial banks and, consequently,...

This paper presents annual stock market capitalization data for 17 advanced economies from 1870 to today. Extending our knowledge beyond individual benchmark years in the seminal work of Rajan and Zingales (2003) reveals a striking new time series pattern: over the long run, the evolution of...

In earlier times, societies relied extensively on "IOUs" ("I owe you") to avert the need for settlement in specie. However, an IOU reliant economy is complex and fraught with financial stability risks. These problems can be overcome through clearing, netting and settlement, either without or...

Are central banks able to isolate their domestic economy by offsetting the effects of foreign capital flows? We provide an answer for the First Age of Globalization based on an exceptionally detailed and standardized database of monthly balance sheets of all central banks in the world (i.e. 21)...