Contrary to popular belief, the history of central banking begins much earlier than 1800. Many current issues of central bank policy can be traced back to the public giro banks of the 15th century, and have been discussed in numerous essays at least since the 17th century. Are the same debates...

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...

Saving in the "Zero Interest Period". Private Investors and the Capital Market in Germany in the First World War: This paper offers a look back at the period of zero interest and even negative interest during the First World War. In contrast to the current period of low interest rates, during...

Ten years ago, the global financial and economic crisis began. In 2007, the hedge fund New Century Financial as well as the banks IKB Deutsche Industriebank and North-ern Rock were the first financial institutions and hedge funds to run into difficulties as a result of having en-gaged in...

Scholars, politicians and regulators have been racking their brains over this problem since 2007, the year the financial crisis broke out. The question of whether a fi-nancial system can even be stable in the first place has also emerged. And yet if there is one thing all know, it is that there...

This paper analyses the early years of the history of the Bundesbank from a history of economic thought-perspective. The study uses the example of Bernhard Benning, who was heading the Economics Department of the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft, one major banks owned by the German Reich during the...

The following article presents the concept of the sovereign money system. The term 'sovereign money' (Vollgeld in German) refers to unrestricted legal tender, issued by a monetary authority such as a central bank. In contrast to bank deposit money, sovereign money-on-account for public use among...

Am 20. Januar 2021 veranstalteten das Institut für bankhistorische Forschung und das Center for Financial Studies eine vielbeachtete Video-Konferenz zum Thema 'Die Rolle von Zentralbanken in Krisenzeiten - Lehren aus der Zeit vor 1800'. Anlass war das Erscheinen des Buches von Ulrich Bindseil...