Journal of European Economic History - 2014 issue 1 - 2


Editore
Bancaria Editrice
Anno
2014
Pagine
238
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Call for papers
The European Banking Union Reconsidered.
Lessons from Economic History

ARTICLES
Banking Behaviour in Large-Scale Crises: Lessons from History
This paper aims to explore the way banks modified their behaviour after the subprime crisis. Historical evidence suggests that enhanced regulation requirements generally follow important financial reversals. Accordingly, a comparison between (1927-1931) and (2006- 2009) periods is made. Despite the considerable differences between the 1929 depression and the subprime crisis, banking practices for those two periods were widely affected. By learning lessons from past experience, the purpose is to distinguish between coercion and deliberate strategy. The statistical analysis of the economic and financial impacts that has been carried out for both periods has enabled discussion of notions of resistance and profitability in banks. Finally, we provide evidence that during these crises, changes in strategies are rather proactive. Imposed regulatory constraints do not appear to have been the prime driver of the strategic management of banks.
150 Years of Financial Regulation in Spain. What Can We Learn?
This paper explores the changes effected in the Spanish regulatory regimes over the last 150 years, and asks what have been the forces driving the regulatory reforms. A study of the Spanish experience reveals that there was relatively little statutory legislation until 1914 and for a long time there was no reaction to crises. In contrast, regulations have been altered on numerous occasions in the twentieth century. The paper also shows that the regulatory process has been the result of the interplay between economic as well as political economy forces. Moreover, and despite some idiosyncratic features, the Spanish regulatory history is similar to that of other European nations.
The Deflation of 1652 Fractional Coin: Bad Business for the Castilian Tax System in Early-Modern Castile
This essay deals with the consequences on the Castilian financial, fiscal and public debts systems of the deflationary programme set up by the Castilian Crown through the laws of 25 June and 17 November 1652.
The reduction in the nominal value of the Castilian copper coin (vellón) was the key point of the 1652 programme and - for the first time in the history of currency manipulations in seventeenth century Castile - the Crown decided to indemnify those most heavily affected by such reductions. Simultaneously, the government allowed the Castilians to pay their taxes with the old copper coins at their pre 25 June and 17 November 1652 nominal value, and it also enabled the tax collectors to do make payments to the Royal Treasury in the same way, so there are good reasons to suggest that the deflationary measures of 1652 were bad for all those sectors involved and, particularly, for the Crown.

NOTES
An Attempt at Modernizing the Use of Assets in Italian Nation Building. The Boncompagni Ludovisi Family (1841-1896)
This contribution attempts to analyze some of the features connected with the aid the great private assets gave to the Italian nation building process during the first post-Unity decades. The most recent historiography puts under the limelight how, between 1861 and 1893, from Italian Unification until the "end of the century crisis" the building process for a new national credit market, as well as for a new banking and financial system, themselves able to support the manifold industrialization process then active in the country, were aided by greater private assets, namely those held by noble families. Such a contribution was by no means a linear one; rather it was very articulated and changed significantly with each specific case, following both innovative strategies and enhanced preservation of assets.
In order to single out a possible case study, my contribution intends to analyze the management evolution and investment strategies of the assets of the Boncompagni-Ludovisi family between 1841 - before Italian Unification and 1896 - i.e., until the "end of the century crisis". Such a viewpoint appears particularly meaningful, not only because it concerns some of the most significant assets of the time - with strong roots in the area around Rome and a good presence in other regions- but also because, between 1883 and 1896, this family began, making good use of its contacts in the changing real estate market, began to modernize the use and the distribution of their assets. However, such an action was bound to clash both with the "weight of tradition" within the family and with the fall of the financial and banking system.

PROBLEMS
Did British and German Trade Regionalisation Trigger Commodity-Market Disintegration during the Interwar Years? Empirical Evidence from the Scandinavian Countries
In this article the impact of the interwar disintegration in Scandinavia is examined. The subject is approached by an analysis of the regionalisation policies of Germany and the UK and foreign trade, and relative commodity market prices, in Scandinavia. The empirical evidence shows that the British trade policies had a stronger and more negative impact in Denmark than in Sweden and Norway, where trade was encouraged. However, all Scandinavian countries experienced increasing relative commodity market prices, and thus followed the general pattern of market disintegration.

IN MEMORIAM
Kristof Glamann
Kristof Glamann, Professor emeritus of Economic History at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, founding member of ‘The Journal of European Economic History’ in 1972, and member of its International Advisory Board since then, passed away last year: a great loss for the discipline, and for the Journal in particular.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS
A. Acosta
Los orígenes de la burguesía de El Salvador. El control sobre el café y el Estado, 1848-1890
Victor H. Acuña

 A. Cafarelli
Il leone ferito: Venezia, l’Adriatico e la navigazione sussidiata per le Indie e l’Estremo Oriente (1866-1914)
Giampaolo Conte


G. De Luca, G. Sabatini (eds.)
Growing in the Shadow of an Empire. How Spanish Colonialism Affected Economic Development in Europe and in the World, XVIth-XVIIIth cc.
Aliza S. Wong


G. Maifreda
I denari dell’inquisitore. Affari e giustizia di fede nell’Italia moderna
Fabrizio Filioli Uranio

P. Gurney, P. Corthorn, Y. Béliard (eds.)
The Great Labour Unrest
Valerio Torreggiani


A. Guenzi
Cutlery Trade. Le origini corporative dei distretti industriali in Europa (secoli XV-XX)
Valerio Torreggiani