Abstract:A novel series of interest rates paid by the Corporation of London shows that interest rates in London declined by 350 basis points during the seventeenth century. The decline followed a similar pattern in Europe. Records from the Corporation’s archive provide evidence for financial development: an increase in the number and volume of debt instruments, an increase in the number of lenders, and the development of a secondary market. Econometric analysis establishes that increasing the debt instruments’ liquidit… Show more
“…The data corroborate what was already known about the declining trend in interest rates for private and public credit before 1800 (Clark 2005; Grafe 2012, p. 15; Costa et al . 2018b; Sussman 2022). 10 Portuguese government bonds were sold at 8 per cent in the mid-16 th century, 6.25-5 until the mid-18 th century, and 4 per cent in 1770 (Costa et al .…”
Section: Determinants Of Fund Allocation Towards Private Loans and So...mentioning
This article questions the drivers behind the distribution of savings in different capital markets in Portugal between 1550 and 1800. A novel dataset of credit transactions, interest rates and debt service documents a shift in the lenders' investment behaviour. By 1712, one of the leading institutional creditors—the Misericórdias—had ceased to allocate funds to the sovereign debt market. Data reveal that this disinvestment was neither related to the poor performance of debt service nor to the lure of potentially higher returns on private credit. We argue that changes in the rationales for issuing debt justify the drop in the number of institutional investors in the public credit market, and this correlates with the heavy allocation of funds into private lending.
“…The data corroborate what was already known about the declining trend in interest rates for private and public credit before 1800 (Clark 2005; Grafe 2012, p. 15; Costa et al . 2018b; Sussman 2022). 10 Portuguese government bonds were sold at 8 per cent in the mid-16 th century, 6.25-5 until the mid-18 th century, and 4 per cent in 1770 (Costa et al .…”
Section: Determinants Of Fund Allocation Towards Private Loans and So...mentioning
This article questions the drivers behind the distribution of savings in different capital markets in Portugal between 1550 and 1800. A novel dataset of credit transactions, interest rates and debt service documents a shift in the lenders' investment behaviour. By 1712, one of the leading institutional creditors—the Misericórdias—had ceased to allocate funds to the sovereign debt market. Data reveal that this disinvestment was neither related to the poor performance of debt service nor to the lure of potentially higher returns on private credit. We argue that changes in the rationales for issuing debt justify the drop in the number of institutional investors in the public credit market, and this correlates with the heavy allocation of funds into private lending.
“…The establishment of the Commission had been inspired by the debate in the House of Commons of 20 November 1601, at which Francis Bacon had said: If any man out of his own Wit, industry or indeavour finds any thing beneficial for the Common‐Wealth, or bring in any new Invention, which every Subject of the Kingdom may use; yet in regard of his pains and travel therein, her Majesty is perhaps pleased to grant him a privilege to use the same only by himself or his deputies for a certain time. This is one kind of Monopoly … (d'Ewes, 1662, p. 644)Which was an argument with which English people had been familiar ever since Thomas Smith, in his 1581 A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England , had described the Venetian system of patents for inventions.…”
Section: The 1624 Statute Of Monopoliesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In an article subtitled ‘The Financial Revolution Revisited’, Sussman (2022) showed that, before the Glorious Revolution, interest rates in London declined in parallel with those in Amsterdam, then the leading financial centre; and that the 1660 Restoration (i.e. of the English monarchy after the 11‐year Interregnum), not the Glorious Revolution, represents a more significant pivot in the development of the English Financial Revolution.…”
Section: A Chronology Of English Technological and Economic Advances ...mentioning
The English economy during the sixteenth century was increasingly captured by monopolists, with dire consequences in aggregate. Yet, though many Members of Parliament owned patents of monopoly, on 20 November 1601 the House of Commons agreed, with no voices raised in opposition, to void all such patents. That collective decision helped shift the English economy from a non‐cooperative to a cooperative game, and thus from non‐competition to competition, so taking a key prefatory step towards the English Industrial Revolution.
“…Commercial opportunities and rental income generated by the rebuilding might have been better capitalized to repair the Corporation's finances. The Corporation of London received further attention in an article solely authored by Sussman. Creating a series of interest rates paid by the Corporation to its lenders between 1638 and 1683 – an overlooked aspect of seventeenth‐century financial development – Sussman finds that interests rates were in decline compared with those in Amsterdam, which was the most economically developed centre in Europe at the time.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The Corporation of London received further attention in an article solely authored by Sussman. Creating a series of interest rates paid by the Corporation to its lenders between 1638 and 1683 – an overlooked aspect of seventeenth‐century financial development – Sussman finds that interests rates were in decline compared with those in Amsterdam, which was the most economically developed centre in Europe at the time. Financial development was achieved by a greater volume of debt instruments, a higher number of lenders, and the growth of a secondary market.…”
Early modern social and economic history remains a healthy field, with no fewer than 34 articles published in wide-ranging journals in 2022. The breadth of the field was notable this year and included articles exploring histories of British expansionism, economic growth through international and domestic trade, municipal development, and socio-economic identity. Reading 2022's glut of articles takes us into local and regional corners of Britain (including London, the Midlands, Devon, Somerset, Cheshire, and the Scottish Highlands), but also onto the stages of colonial expansion and exploitation (Ireland, Virginia and North America, and various outposts of the East India Company). Labour and welfare received attention this year and Scottish economic history was particularly well represented.Starting far from Britain's shores the country's colonial economy received renewed attention this year. Smith's article reframes the creation of the Virginia plantation in the early seventeenth century as a successful venture. Using a combination of sources -archaeological evidence of the colony (including material culture and the built environment), private correspondence of the colony's proponents, and surviving Virginia Company papers -Smith demonstrates the multistranded intentions and efforts by its proponents to create a profitable, self-sufficient colony that was deeply connected to global economy, trade, and empire. Merchant activities in the face of war were the subject of an article by Talbott. Concentrating on merchant correspondence during the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch wars, Talbott challenges the idea that these periods of war were damaging to commercial interests. Instead, she identifies a broad range of (both successful and unsuccessful) coping strategies -from falsifying papers to trading in unfamiliar marketsthat merchants adopted to navigate the obstacles to business that conflict presented. She shows continuity in these strategies across the three periods of war, despite the different nature of each conflict. Though the wars undoubtedly had a negative impact on trade for many, Talbott shows that some proactive merchants benefitted.Themes of opportunity and risk are further explored in Roulston and Scott's article on traders operating in the early seventeenth-century Ulster Plantation. Shedding new light on the economic community that supplied this unsettled province, they identify a luxury goods market -including goods such as marmalade, silk, and French wine -within the region, but
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