SIDNEY HOMER, who died in 1983, was a limited partner in Salomon Brothers and was the general partner in charge of the firm's bond market research department. He is best known for his pioneering and analytical works of bond market history and the economic forces that drive bond market trends. RICHARD SYLLA is Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets and a Professor of Economics, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at NYU's Stern School of Business. He is a past president of the Economic History Association and is a trustee of the Museum of American Financial History.

• Foreword by Dr. Henry Kaufman viiPreface to the Fourth Edition ixSummary Tables xiiiSummary Charts xviiIntroduction 1Part One. Ancient Times Chapter1. Prehistoric and Primitive Credit and Interest 172. Mesopotamia: Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria 253. Greece 324. Rome 445. A Summary and Analysis of Ancient Interest Rates 57Part Two. Medieval and Renaissance Europe6. Usury Doctrines and Their Effect on European Credit Forms and Interest 677. The Dark Ages 808. Late Medieval Times 879. The Renaissance 10210. A Summary and Analysis of Medieval and Renaissance Interest Rates in Western Europe 132Part Three. Modern Europe and North America to 190011. England in the Eighteenth Century 14512. Europe in the Eighteenth Century 16413. England in the Nineteenth Century 17814. France in the Nineteenth Century 21315. Other European Countries in the Nineteenth Century 23016. The United States in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 270Part Four. Europe and North America Since 190017. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 1900–1945 32918. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 1946–1990 36619. England in the Twentieth Century 43720. Europe in the Twentieth Century: France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy 46221. Europe in the Twentieth Century: Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Ireland, Iberia, and Turkey 52322. Canada in the Twentieth Century 54523. Summary and Analysis of Interest Rates in Europe and North America Since 1700 554Part Five. Other Countries and the 1990’s24. Japan 57525. The Old Sterling Area: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Pakistan 58626. Russia 59827. China 61328. Latin America 62629. Turn of the Millennium: 1990–2005 642Notes 673Index 693