A History of Credit and Power in the Western World - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook A History of Credit and Power in the Western World write by Scott B. MacDonald. This book was released on 2017-07-12. A History of Credit and Power in the Western World available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The end of the Cold War put the planet on a new track, abruptly replacing the familiar world of bipolarity, red phones, and intercontinental ballistic missiles with the strange new world of the Internet, e-commerce, and Palm Pilots. The "New World Order" was defined by a U.S.-led war against Iraq, bloody ethnic strife in Bosnia and Rwanda, and religious turmoil in Central Asia. This evolving global system, however, overlooked the powerful role of credit, which functions as a critical building block for developing greater national and individual wealth. This volume examines the evolution of credit in the Western world and its relationship to power. Spanning several centuries of human endeavor. it focuses on Western Europe and the United States and also considers how the Western system became the global credit system. Six major themes run throughout: (1) the direct relationship between credit and power; (2) different kinds of political power promote different kinds of economic behavior; (3) various societal and cultural groups were often more successful in mingling credit and political power; (4) the Western credit system evolved in tandem with the development of the nation-state; (5) historically, there has been a pattern of financial crises; (6) credit spread from being the privilege of the wealthy and powerful to being available to vast numbers. MacDonald and Gastmann have broken history into five periods, ranging from early pre-modern, defining the earliest references to banking and credit as exemplified by the Code of Hammurabi, circa 1726 BC, through the Roman Empire with its creation of money and growing use of credit in trade, the barbarian invasions of the 11th century which led to a breakdown in credit networks in the West, through the establishment of the Italian city-states, to the modern period which incorporates the rise of credit in the Low Countries in the 1500s and extends through the rise of London and New York as the major international credit hubs.
A History of Credit and Power in the Western World
A History of Credit and Power in the Western World - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook A History of Credit and Power in the Western World write by Scott B. MacDonald. This book was released on 2004. A History of Credit and Power in the Western World available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The end of the Cold War put the planet on a new track, abruptly replacing the familiar world of bipolarity, red phones, and intercontinental ballistic missiles with the strange new world of the Internet, e-commerce, and Palm Pilots. The "New World Order" was defined by the first U.S.-led war against Iraq, bloody ethnic strife in Bosnia and Rwanda, and religious turmoil in Central Asia. This evolving global system, however, overlooked the powerful role of credit, which functions as a critical building block for developing greater national and individual wealth. This volume examines the evolution of credit in the Western world and its relationship to power. Spanning several centuries of human endeavor, it focuses on Western Europe and the United States and also considers how the Western system became the global credit system. Now available in paperback, A History of Credit and Power in the Western World is a highly accessible, innovative and well-written volume that will engage historians and economists alike.
Power and Plenty
Power and Plenty - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Power and Plenty write by Ronald Findlay. This book was released on 2009-08-10. Power and Plenty available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. International trade has shaped the modern world, yet until now no single book has been available for both economists and general readers that traces the history of the international economy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Power and Plenty fills this gap, providing the first full account of world trade and development over the course of the last millennium. Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke examine the successive waves of globalization and "deglobalization" that have occurred during the past thousand years, looking closely at the technological and political causes behind these long-term trends. They show how the expansion and contraction of the world economy has been directly tied to the two-way interplay of trade and geopolitics, and how war and peace have been critical determinants of international trade over the very long run. The story they tell is sweeping in scope, one that links the emergence of the Western economies with economic and political developments throughout Eurasia centuries ago. Drawing extensively upon empirical evidence and informing their systematic analysis with insights from contemporary economic theory, Findlay and O'Rourke demonstrate the close interrelationships of trade and warfare, the mutual interdependence of the world's different regions, and the crucial role these factors have played in explaining modern economic growth. Power and Plenty is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the origins of today's international economy, the forces that continue to shape it, and the economic and political challenges confronting policymakers in the twenty-first century.
States of Credit
States of Credit - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook States of Credit write by David Stasavage. This book was released on 2011-07-05. States of Credit available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. States of Credit provides the first comprehensive look at the joint development of representative assemblies and public borrowing in Europe during the medieval and early modern eras. In this pioneering book, David Stasavage argues that unique advances in political representation allowed certain European states to gain early and advantageous access to credit, but the emergence of an active form of political representation itself depended on two underlying factors: compact geography and a strong mercantile presence. Stasavage shows that active representative assemblies were more likely to be sustained in geographically small polities. These assemblies, dominated by mercantile groups that lent to governments, were in turn more likely to preserve access to credit. Given these conditions, smaller European city-states, such as Genoa and Cologne, had an advantage over larger territorial states, including France and Castile, because mercantile elites structured political institutions in order to effectively monitor public credit. While creditor oversight of public funds became an asset for city-states in need of finance, Stasavage suggests that the long-run implications were more ambiguous. City-states with the best access to credit often had the most closed and oligarchic systems of representation, hindering their ability to accept new economic innovations. This eventually transformed certain city-states from economic dynamos into rentier republics. Exploring the links between representation and debt in medieval and early modern Europe, States of Credit contributes to broad debates about state formation and Europe's economic rise.
Fragile by Design
Fragile by Design - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Fragile by Design write by Charles W. Calomiris. This book was released on 2015-08-04. Fragile by Design available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Why stable banking systems are so rare Why are banking systems unstable in so many countries—but not in others? The United States has had twelve systemic banking crises since 1840, while Canada has had none. The banking systems of Mexico and Brazil have not only been crisis prone but have provided miniscule amounts of credit to business enterprises and households. Analyzing the political and banking history of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil through several centuries, Fragile by Design demonstrates that chronic banking crises and scarce credit are not accidents. Calomiris and Haber combine political history and economics to examine how coalitions of politicians, bankers, and other interest groups form, why they endure, and how they generate policies that determine who gets to be a banker, who has access to credit, and who pays for bank bailouts and rescues. Fragile by Design is a revealing exploration of the ways that politics inevitably intrudes into bank regulation.
