Finance and Financiers in European History 1880-1960

by Youssef Cassis

Overview

In this major "state of the art" survey, a highly distinguished team of contributors addresses the complex and crucial role of finance in European history during the period 1880-1960. Throughout the volume a global and comparative perspective is used in the analysis of a problem that may in fact be perceived at four different, although interrelated levels. Firstly, the economic: What was the weight of the financial sector in a given economy? Secondly, the social: What was the specific position of the financial elites in society? Thirdly, the political: What was the impact of financial interests in politics? And finally the international: the establishment and gradual erosion of Europe's position as the "world's banker." The range of both subjects and authors is truly international, and Finance and Financiers will make a powerful contribution to an area of historical debate that is of very great current interest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521400244
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/12/1991
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.33(h) x 1.18(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: the weight of finance in European societies Y. Cassis; 2. Banking and industrialisation: Rondo Cameron twenty years on Sidney Pollard and Dieter Ziegler; Part I. Financial Sector and Economy: 3. The domestic commercial banks and the City of London, 1870–1939 P. L. Cottrell; 4. Banks and state in France from the 1880s to the 1930s: the impossible advance of the banks Andre Gueslin; 5. An overview on the role of the large German banks up to 1914 Richard Tilly; 6. Banks and economic development: comments Harold James; Part II. Financial Elites and Society: 7. Financial elites and British society, 1880–1950 M. J. Daunton; 8. Bankers in French society 1860s–1960s Alain Plessis; 9. The banker in German society, 1890 to 1930 Dolores L. Augustine; 10. Financial élites and society: comments Jose Harris; Part III. Financial Interests and Politics: 11. The influence of the City over British economic policy, c.1880–1960 E. H. H. Green; 12. The political influence of bankers and financiers in France in the years 1850–1960 Hubert Bonin; 13. Banks and banking in Germany after the First World War: strategies of defence Gerald D. Feldman; 14. Banks and bankers in the German interwar depression Harold James; 15. Finance and politics: comments M. J. Daunton; Part IV. Finance and Financiers in Smaller European Countries: 16. Finance and financiers in Switzerland, 1880–1960 Y. Cassis and Jakob Tanner (with Fabienne Debrunner); 17. Finance and financiers in Belgium, 1880–1940 G. Kurgan vann Hentenryk; 18. The political economy of banking: retail banking and corporate finance in Sweden, 1850–1939 Mats Larsson and Hakan Lindgren; Part V. The Rise of Extra-European Financial Centres: 19. Money and power: the shift from Great Britain to the United States Kathleen Burk; 20. The Yokohama Specie Bank during the period of the restored Gold Standard in Japan (January 1930–December 1931) Hiroaki Yamaziki; 21. International financial centres in Asia, the Middle East and Australia: a historical perspective Geoffrey Jones; 22. Extra-financial centres: comments Mira Wilkins.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume, to its credit, raises as many interesting questions as it answers." Journal of Economic History

From the Publisher