German mortgage banks based on stock, more frequently founded from the early 1860s, used the traditional Pfandbrief system to cope with the growing tasks of urban and housing construction. Its safety for both creditors as well as debtors of real estate financing depended not least on a clear...

This article focuses on the reasons for the introduction and rapid abolition of the increment value tax on real estate in Germany between 1911 and 1913. It examines the interplay between the land reformers who campaigned for the tax and the political situation that made it possible for all...

In this paper, we mainly focus on two institutional aspects that are related to financial risk, that is, profiteering and the use of non-fraudulent coins when performing financial transactions. We argue that these two prerequisites were important for the success of the commercially oriented...

The connection between public spending and the ambitions of urban elites is a common topic in the historiography of the late Middle Ages. However, it is still unclear how city finances and private capital interacted before the use of sophisticated financial systems of the late 13 th to early 14...

The Latin Monetary Union (hereafter LMU) was established in 1865 between France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland. The agreement provided for the adoption of a common monetary base consisting of specie, and the adoption of the free circulation of gold and silver coins among them, whatever the...

The project of a national register of wool was the fever dream of mercantilism in Great Britain during the eighteenth century. For more than half a century, major parts of the English woolen traders and clothiers thereby attempted to lend administrative teeth to the ban on the exportation of...

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...

This study explores the economic cohesion of two German areas, Hamburg and Saxony, in the 18 th century, created through the inflow of Atlantic colonial groceries from the former to the latter. Combining different kinds of sources revealed the following. The trade flow from Hamburg to German...

This special issue focuses on the financial behaviour of different participants in European medieval and early modern financial markets. It extends our knowledge of the financial strategies employed by households, merchants, charities, city governments and corporations by asking what investment...