The International Library of Macroeconomic and Financial History series – serie

This volume is concerned with periods of very rapid inflation in the period before 1950 and shifts the emphasis from hyperinflation as commonly defined to a wider range of experience. It examines the source and origins of these inflationary episodes, how they started and what measures were used to bring them to an end. The experience of the last twenty years, when the entire world has been on fiat money and inflation has burgeoned, sometimes in excess of 100 per cent per annum, has led economists to reflect on historical examples of this phenomena. The extreme nature of episodes such as the German inflation of the early 1920s ensures that they offer a special kind of evidence on money and prices that is of considerable interest at the present time. Much of the material here is very recent, as relatively little contemporary attention was given to inflations and much of the best scholarship has only appeared in the last twenty years. However, this volume also provides the reader with access to the reflections of contemporary economists, such as Joan Robinson and Gordon Tullock.

Black markets, rationing, shortages - these and other issues are covered in this important collection which presents a selection of the best literature on the impact of price controls on wages, investment and real output in the short and long runs.The book covers a wide range of episodes ranging from the controls imposed by the Emperor Diocletian in the year 301 A.D. to recent experiments in Sweden. Several essays deal with controls during the two world wars, when some form of control was adopted by most of the industrialized countries. It includes articles by both critics of controls such as Milton Friedman to defenders such as John Kenneth Galbraith. Several are written by scholars who worked as high-level administrators of the programs they discuss.The book will be an essential reference source for both economists and economic historians with an interest in the price system and the functioning of a market economy.

This major reference collection presents in an accessible form the key articles and papers on the theory and history of financial crises. It includes both classic and contemporary writings on domestic financial crises, the transmission of crises between countries and the resolution of crises by both private and government authorities acting as lender of last resort.The book is divided into five sections. Section I on theories of financial crises presents two rival approaches to financial crises; the monetarist approach and the Fisher-Kindleberger-Minsky approach. It also includes recent Rational Expectations approaches. Section II contains readings on financial crises in US history while Section III presents case studies for other countries. Section IV contains readings on the international transmission of financial crises. Section V concludes with a number of articles on the resolution of financial crises.Financial crises have been a topic of perennial interest - perhaps as old as economic science. This landmark book makes a singular contribution by presenting the most significant literature on this important topic in an accessible form.

This important two volume reference work comprises the most important articles and papers on the history of industrial finance and capital formation from the 18th century to World War I. It covers all the main regions of the world with special emphasis on the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the United States. By providing a careful selection of the most influential articles, these two volumes make a significant contribution to an issue of great and continuing importance.

This important volume focuses on the origins, growth and impact over time of multinational banks. Why have banks established branches in foreign countries? What do such banks do? How have they performed? What has been the developmental impact of international banking? How has multinational banking changed over time? Why have banking activities clustered in international financial centres such as New York, Tokyo and London? The articles in this selection cover a wide range of national experiences including those of the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The volume brings together literature from a range of disciplines, including banking, economics and business history in a comprehensive collection of the best articles published on the development of multinational banks.

Protectionism has been an enduring feature in the world economy even though economic theory can prove that free trade is a superior regime. Protectionism is, of course, caused primarily by interest groups who lose out under free trade and are able to organize to protect their interests.This major reference collection brings together some different theoretical approaches to the issue of commercial policy and how it is constructed. It also illuminates some of the complexities behind alternating phases of comparatively free trade and protectionism in the world economy over the last two centuries. Individual country studies bring out some variety in the experience, both in the origins of protectionist policies and of their impact. The conclusions add up to a considerable indictment of protectionism.

This volume offers an authoritiative selection of the best published articles on the great speculative manias and stock market crashes, which highlights their important similarities. These phenomena disrupt the normal activities of investors who use financial markets to accumulate diversified portfolios of assets. The attraction of rapid capital gains entices the unwary to abandon their customary investments, exposing them to ruin when prices of hot new assets collapse. The mania for tulips in seventeenth century Holland and schemes to refinance government debt in eighteenth century France and Britain burned many investors and transformed financial markets. The volatile American stock market of the nineteenth century and bursting regional real estate bubbles brought down many financial institutions, threatening economic stability. The striking parallels between the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 raise basic questions about the stability of the capital markets. By examining whether these phenomena represent rational movements of the market or some mania or fad, these articles focus on the central policy question of whether these markets require regulation to serve the investing public.

The role and performance of central banks has always been of critical concern to economists and politicians alike. The post-War concensus that viewed central banks as engaging in discretionary economic management has been replaced by controversy over the best means of controlling monetary growth and stopping inflation. This important reference collection provides essential historical perspective to the whole issue of the most appropriate means of constituting and operating a central bank. Drawing on contributions from the 17th century to the present, it highlights the different approaches adopted by bankers, economists and politicians. The wide range of selected essays and papers draw on varying experience in a number of countries (including the US, the UK, Japan, Germany and Canada) and embraces two centuries of debate on the role of the central bank as the government's bank, as lender of last resort and as arbiter of monetary growth.

The question of free banking - or laissez-faire in money - raises fundamental theoretical, historical and normative issues. Discussions of free banking contemplate the consequences of abolishing government central banks, and allowing unrestricted money issue by private banks.Research on free banking questions has expanded tremendously in the past two decades. These three volumes collect the most important modern articles on the theory, history and policy implications of free banking. The literature is marked by a number of sharp intellectual controversies, and the editor has included both sides of the most important debates. The editor's introduction provides a fresh perspective on the developments in monetary theory and in the real world that have stimulated the several strands of research represented here.

Until 1973 all money in use was either a commodity or was linked to one. In this comprehensive two volume reference work Anna J. Schwartz has brought together the key articles on the theme of commodity monies. This invaluable collection discusses the forms and standards of commodity monies, their theoretical underpinning and their inherent problems.