We test asset pricing theory using the Bazacle company of Toulouse, the earliest documented shareholding corporation. We collect share prices and net dividends from its foundation in 1372 to its nationalization in 1946. We find a real average dividend yield of 5% per annum and no long-term price...

This paper presents new monthly capital gains, dividend yield, and total return indices for common equities quoted on British stock exchanges from 1829 to 1929. As well as creating an all-share index, we create a blue-chip index of the 30 largest companies, which we splice to the Financial Times...

It is well recognized that the nature of entrepreneurial activity varies by context and historical epoch. But are there systematic underlying factors that cause such significant differences in the entrepreneurial opportunity set? This paper presents a conceptualization of entrepreneurship based...

This paper employs a unique, hand-collected dataset of exchange rates for five major currencies (the lira of Barcelona, the pound sterling of England, the pond groot of Flanders, the florin of Florence and the livre tournois of France) to consider whether the law of one price and purchasing...

Özet: Osmanlı Devleti'nin yıkılışı ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluşu, tarihsel süreklilik içinde etkilerini bugün hala devam ettiren çeşitli sosyo-ekonomik/politik gelişmelerin ürünüdür. Nitekim Osmanlı döneminde başlayan ekonomik gelişme ve yaklaşımlar Cumhuriyet...

In the sixteenth century some northwest European cities underwent institutional change. These cities removed privileges that members of certain merchant guilds enjoyed, and began to develop contractual infrastructure necessary for the functioning of modern impersonal markets. I find that these...

Using 1708-1788 historical data, we test the Austrian hypothesis that fractional-reserve banking destabilizes commodity prices, complicating economic calculation and entrepreneurial planning, and contributes to boom-bust cycles. The Bank of Amsterdam (Wisselbank, 1609-1819) maintained high...

Why did the country that borrowed the most industrialize first? Earlier research has viewed the explosion of debt in 18th century Britain as either detrimental, or as neutral for economic growth. In this paper, we argue instead that Britain's borrowing boom was beneficial. The massive issuance...

One strand of the economics literature addresses financial deepening as a precursor to economic growth. Another views it as a cause of financial crises. We examine historical data for 17 economies from 1870 to 1929 to distinguish episodes of growth induced by financial deepening from crises...

The paper reconsiders the boom of the mid 1890s in which a large number of firms in the bicycle, vehicle and pneumatic tyre industries were floated. It investigates why so many of these issues featured aristocratic directors listed in their prospectuses and finds that they exemplified City...