A History of Interest Rates presents a very readable account of interest rate trends and lending practices over four millennia of economic history. Despite the paucity of data prior to the Industrial Revolution, authors Homer and Sylla provide a highly detailed analysis of money markets and borrowing practices in major economies. Underlying the analysis is their assertion that ‘the free market long-term rates of interest for any industrial nation, properly charted, provide a sort of fever chart of the economic and political health of that nation.’ Given the enormous volatility of rates in the 20th century, this implies we’re living in age of political and economic excesses that are reflected in massive interest rate swings. Gain more insight into this assertion by ordering a copy of this book today.
Table of Content
Foreword by Dr. Henry Kaufman vii
Preface to the Fourth Edition ix
Summary Tables xiii
Summary Charts xvii
Introduction 1
Part One. Ancient Times
Chapter
1. Prehistoric and Primitive Credit and Interest 17
2. Mesopotamia: Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria 25
3. Greece 32
4. Rome 44
5. A Summary and Analysis of Ancient Interest Rates 57
Part Two. Medieval and Renaissance Europe6. Usury Doctrines and Their Effect on European Credit Forms and Interest 67
7. The Dark Ages 80
8. Late Medieval Times 87
9. The Renaissance 102
10. A Summary and Analysis of Medieval and Renaissance Interest Rates in Western Europe 132
Part Three. Modern Europe and North America to 1900
11. England in the Eighteenth Century 145
12. Europe in the Eighteenth Century 164
13. England in the Nineteenth Century 178
14. France in the Nineteenth Century 213
15. Other European Countries in the Nineteenth Century 230
16. The United States in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 270
Part Four. Europe and North America Since 1900
17. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 1900-1945 329
18. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 1946-1990 366
19. England in the Twentieth Century 437
20. Europe in the Twentieth Century: France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy 462
21. Europe in the Twentieth Century: Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Ireland, Iberia, and Turkey 523
22. Canada in the Twentieth Century 545
23. Summary and Analysis of Interest Rates in Europe and North America Since 1700 554
Part Five. Other Countries and the 1990’s24. Japan 575
25. The Old Sterling Area: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Pakistan 586
26. Russia 598
27. China 613
28. Latin America 626
29. Turn of the Millennium: 1990-2005 642
Notes 673
Index 693
About the author
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.
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