Prochains évènements
Upcoming seminarsView all
Financial history
December 18, 2024
12:30 - 14:00
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
NOGUES-MARCO Pilar
(University of Geneva)
Trade Imbalances or Silver Arbitrage? Anglo-Asian Bullion Flows in the Early Modern Period, 1664-1813
Summary
Silver was the most significant commodity money that connected global exchanges in the early modern period. It was transferred from America toward Asia, with Europe being the major transhipment region. Western scholars of intercontinental trade companies have traditionally interpreted silver flows as the capital balancing item used to settle persistent European trade deficits with Asia caused by the European demand for Asian commodities. Conversely, the California School argues that silver was exchanged for profit as it was cheap in the Western producing regions and expensive in the East because of large China's demand for silver. This view reverses causality because the export of Asian commodities (and gold) to Europe is interpreted as the balancing items used to pay for silver imports to Asia. Data on silver prices are needed to discriminate between the two competing narratives. This research measures the profitability of Euro-Asian arbitrage for silver (and gold) based on original hand-collected data from the East India Company archive in order to define the role of silver in shaping global connections in early modern long-distance trade.
Economic history
December 4, 2024
12:30 - 14:00
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
ROBERTSON Charlotte
(Harvard Business School)
TBA
Economic history
November 27, 2024
12:30 - 14:00
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
BETRAN Concepcion
(University Valencia)
The 1930s crisis and the Second Spanish Republic: Challenge and response
Summary
Unfettered by the gold standard, Spain’s economic performance in the 1930s should in principle have looked a lot more like those of the United States and the United Kingdom than those of France and Belgium. But the Second Republic’s (1931-1936) response to the economic crisis was divisive and ultimately incomplete. We attribute this outcome to political economy forces. Out study is based on detailed information on government expenditures, tariffs, and Most Favored Nations’ agreements. We match these various policy instruments with election results at the provincial level. Attuned to its support among industrial workers and landless peasants, the leftist first government (1931-1933) was interventionist and favored tariffs on manufacturing; aligned with large landowners and small farmers, the rightist second government (1933-1936) leaned toward austerity and advocated agricultural tariffs. Both governments adopted MFNs to mitigate the effect of tariffs. We conclude that the divergence in policy deepened the prevailing political and social divide between left and right.
Prochains ateliers et conférencesView all
EURETES “History of Capitalism” Workshop (day 2)
(Centre Paul Bairoch (U. de Genève) / Centre François Simiand (PSE) / Istituto Figuerola (U. Carlos III))
EURETES "History of Capitalism" Workshop
EURETES “History of Capitalism” Workshop
(Centre Paul Bairoch (U. de Genève) / Centre François Simiand (PSE) / Istituto Figuerola (U. Carlos III))
EURETES "History of Capitalism" Workshop
Working papersView all
The reform of the Paris stock exchange and anti-Semitism (1893-1998)
Pierre-Cyrille Hautcœur
2024
The Social Differentiation of Access to Water in 19th & 20th Century Paris
Lionel Kesztenbaum
2024
Coexistence and interaction of different types of credit in eighteenth century France (and beyond?)
Gilles POSTEL-VINAY
2024
The Belle-Epoque of Portfolios?
Thomas PASTORE
2024