The working of the asset currency provided by the Swedish note banking system in 1878-1901 is described. Natural and institutional conditions caused the demand for currency to peak in March and September, with troughs in July and January. The paper investigates how the Enskilda banks provided...

We exploit the introduction of free banking laws in US states during the 1837-1863 period to examine the impact of removing barriers to bank entry on bank competition and economic growth. As governments were not concerned about systemic stability in this period, we are able to isolate the...

This paper empirically examines the historical allegation of fraudulent behavior of bank management by scrutinizing the balance sheet of individual bank and finds none of the Illinois free banks was without specie reserve. Applying econometric tools to balance sheet items, this paper identifies...

A recurring citation in systemic risk literature reviews (P. Aghion, P. Bolton, and M. Dewatripont. 2000. “Contagious Bank Failures in a Free Banking System.” European Economic Review 44:713–18) offers a model where what they describe as a free banking system is vulnerable to contagious...

This paper empirically examines the historical allegation of fraudulent behavior of bank management by scrutinizing the balance sheet of individual bank and finds none of the Illinois free banks was without specie reserve. Applying econometric tools to balance sheet items, this paper identifies...

From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694 the Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to support the British private economy and to support an increasingly centralized British state. The Bank helped the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in...

We present a financial history of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) using a new dataset derived from the Bank of England minutes. We argue that the war and the associated actions of the Bank of England led to a transformation of the financial system. Additionally, while there was short-term...