La Bourse de Lyon et les autres. Une première évaluation de la géographie des marchés financiers français au XIXe siècle

Abstract

Cet article vise à jeter les bases d’une histoire comparée des places boursières françaises. Il montre que la géographie des marchés financiers demeure relativement stable entre 1871 et 1913 : si l’on se fonde sur le nombre d’entreprises domestiques cotées, le développement de Paris ne s’est en effet pas fait au détriment des bourses régionales, au sein desquelles Lyon acquiert un rôle prépondérant en doublant son poids à la fois sur les plans national et régional. La relative stabilité des relations entre Paris et la province et l’essor lyonnais sont le résultat d’une dynamique institutionnelle façonnée par les relations de concurrence entre places et les changements dans la régulation des bourses. Cette dynamique empêche la centralisation des émetteurs sur le marché dominant, la Bourse de Paris, comme prédit par la littérature théorique dominante.

Stock exchange competition: the case of Geneva during the interwar period

“…It was only at the very end of the war that trading volumes began to recover 72 . By contrast, in occupied France, Lyon exploited the division of the country and the creation of an unoccupied zone ruled by the Vichy government to expand its trades (Oosterlinck and Riva 2010; Ducros 2018). Other provincial exchanges located in the so-called ‘Free zone’, such as Marseille, also benefited from the change brought by the occupation.…”

“…Nonetheless, this rebound allowed the Geneva exchange to enter the war period in relatively better shape than French provincial exchanges which were at the time described as moribund (Dubost 1938). This was not the first time regional stock exchanges had faced difficulties: at the end of the nineteenth century, the Lyon stock exchange had had to fight for its survival (Ducros and Riva 2014; Ducros 2018). In the case of Switzerland, the war limited transfers with foreign markets significantly, but it had a positive impact on the prices of Swiss securities 71 .…”

“…At the same time in France, stock markets existed in Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy, Paris and Toulouse. Ducros and Riva (2017) analyse the evolution of regional exchanges in France. They show that Lyon managed to get the largest share of trades for provincial exchanges, jumping from a market share of provincial trades of 30 per cent in 1871 to 59 per cent in 1913.…”