The Journal of European Economic History - 2013 issue 1 - 2 - 3


Editore
Bancaria Editrice
Anno
2014
Pagine
270
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Editor’s note
We are pleased to inform our readers that, starting from this issue, The Journal of European Economic History is resuming its regular publication under the auspices of the Italian Banking Association ABI. We express our gratitude to the Association for its support aimed at enhancing economic history’s role in the global scientific community and in contemporary society. The Journal will continue to pursue its mission as set forth in 1972 by its founder Professor Luigi De Rosa, continuing to enlarge its scale and scope in the face of current theoretical and practical challenges. It will also continue to maintain its quality standards, included the double blind referral process. In forthcoming issue no. 1-2/ 2014 further initiatives and plans will be announced.

ARTICLES
The Bank of Spain: a national financial institution
This paper explains the process by which the Bank of Spain became a national bank, first by obtaining the monopoly of note issue in 1874 and then by extending its sphere of financial action by creating the country’s only network of bank branches before 1900. The implementation of a "unified or national banknote" in 1884 and the creation of a system of free transfers for its clients were also decisive steps towards the Bank’s transformation from a local Madrid-based institution into a Spanish national institution. The paper also argues that the transformation of the Bank of Spain into a genuine national financial institution contributed to the modernization of the Spanish administrative structure.
Economic inequalities in nineteenth-century Argentina
This work explores the evolution of regional and social inequalities in nineteenth century Argentina. By comparing the economic trajectories of several provinces during the century, the study renders an image of an increasing divergence between the interior and the littoral regions. At the same time, through the use of different statistical indicators of wealth distribution, we observe the complex relationship between economic dynamics and social inequality. We are able, thus, to discuss some influential hypotheses about inequality and economic performance.
Socialist Miracle? Hungarian Industrial Development Policy and Economic Growth, 1950-1975
This article investigates the post-war development policy in Hungary, and the impact of industrial policy on economic growth between 1950 and 1975. In presenting industrial development, it will first of all consider the most important economic policy measures, and then it will be examine in detail investment allocation, development policy priorities. The article provides a new contribution to the Hungarian economic history: the distribution and implementation of the investments all the way down to the level of the sub-branches throughout the whole period are under investigation, corrects and adjusts the general series of data using once strictly classified military and defence industry statistics. In the final section of the article, the connections between industrial policy, investments and economic growth will be examined. The presented new evidence reveals that the performance of the Hungarian socialist economy is much more modest and uneven than estimated to date.

NOTES
Merchants and Citizens: On the Making and Un-making of Merchants in Early-Modern Spain and Spanish America
The question who merchants were is at the centre of this analysis, in which I wish to argue that they were perhaps defined by their economic activity but that, being a merchant, was also a juridical status that was determined according to factors that could have very little to do with professional pursuits.
International trade diplomacy in the Adriatic Sea during the eighteenth-century. The case of the French Consulate in the port of Ancona
This paper describes the role played by the French Consulate in the port of Ancona during the eighteenth-century and especially the research of the years following 1732 when the port was declared exempt from the payment of the customs duties. These tax reliefs were seen by the French government as an important opportunity to expand business in the Adriatic Sea and carrying damage to the British rivals. The consul had the task to create a solid trade circuit between the Adriatic provinces of the Papal States and the provinces belonging to the southern part of France as well as to help the integration of a community of French merchants in central Adriatic. The aim of this research is to verify how the consul worked to achieve the proposed objectives.

PROBLEMS
Informal Credit and Economic Modernization in Milan (1802-1840)
The crucial role of banks in modern economic development has been argued forcibly by a series of studies that have now become "classics" and it is one of the mainstays of the interpretation of nineteenth century industrialization. Albeit from a variety of positions, emphasizing the importance of commercial banks or of universal banks ...

IN MEMORIAM
Gonzalo Anes Álvarez (1931-2014)
Gonzalo Anes Álvarez, member of the International Advisory Board of The Journal of European Economic History since 1999, died in Madrid on the 31 March 2014. Gonzalo Anes was born in 1931, in a small village of Asturias (Spain) and became a disciple of Luis García de Valdeavellano and Ramón Carande in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He also studied in Paris under the guidance of Pierre Vilar, Ernest Labrousse and Fernand Braudel...

REVIEWS OF BOOKS
C. Bravo Lozano, R. Quiròs Rosado (eds.)
En tierra y confluencias. Italia y la Monarquía de España (siglos XVI-XVIII)
G. Sabatini

F. Capie, G. Wood
Money over Two Centuries: Selected Topics in British Monetary History
C. Marsilio

A. De Rose, D. Strangio, J.M. Corà (eds.)
Dall’Italia al Brasile. Storia del contesto economico e sociale tra due territori lontani ma gemelli: Latina e Farroupilha
G. Sabatini

P. Frascani
Le crisi economiche in Italia. Dall’Ottocento a oggi 
F. Sbrana

E. Mourlon-Druol
A Europe made of money. The Emergence of the European Monetary System
D. Strangio

M. Zaganella
Programmazione senza sviluppo. Giuseppe Di Nardi e la politica economica della prima Repubblica
G. Sabatini