Bancaria Editrice - The Journal of European Economic History

Call for papers

The Stall and New Start of the 1950s: European Integration at the Crossroads

In the light of the protracted and complex crisis afflicting Europe (at once economic, political, security- and migration-related), and on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the Journal is issuing a call for papers for a monographic issue ("Stall and new start ...") that will come out in the second half of 2017 (No. 3, 2017).

Articles

Trading Art: The Evolution of the World Art Market Since 1967 and How Switzerland Became a Major Player

Sébastien Guex

This paper examines the evolution since 1967 of the world art market shares held by the leading countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and China) and then analyses the factors that allowed one of these countries, Switzerland, to gain a disproportionately strong position in the world market for cultural goods. It breaks new ground in historiography by creating solid long-term statistical series, thus helping to advance research in a field that attracts abundant media attention but is still largely unexplored by scholars.

Greek Bailouts in Historical Perspective: Comparative Case Studies, 1893 and 2010

Alessandro Albanese Ginammi, Giampaolo Conte

The economic and financial history of Greece offers interesting insights into the current worldwide economic crisis. In the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Greece went through a series of financial disasters due to external factors and to policies that failed to take fiscal stability into account, insofar as they relied heavily on foreign loans. These, in many cases, led to real bankruptcies. This article compares the attempted bailout by a British bank in 1893 with the salvage operation of 2010 that avoided the technical bankruptcy of Greece. Although the outcomes differed, owing to sharply different geopolitical and geo-economic contexts and to the amount of money committed to these financial operations, in both cases Greece relied on Europe to avoid impending financial disaster.

Comparing Labour Market Reform in Greece and Italy in the 1990s

George Christopoulos

In the early 1990s the political economies of Italy and Greece had many characteristics in common that could be expected to contribute to path-dependant resistance to labour market reform. This paper examines the attempts at reform in the two countries during the decade and the factors that contributed to their significantly different outcomes. It argues that the political and economic crises facing Italy triggered an alteration in the orientation of interests and practices of key actors, the new direction being largely defined by the effects of Europeanization. In Greece, by contrast, the absence of path-altering factors reinforced the status quo and thus resulted in stalemate for years to come.

Notes

The Funding of the Papal Fleet in the War Against the Turks: Public Debt, New Taxes and Collection Problems (1526-1588)

Fabrizio Filioli Uranio

The formation of a squadron of galleys operating in the war in the Mediterranean often clashed with financial needs. The papacy and the Apostolic Camera had limited resources for equipping galleys, and the path of direct taxation of the Papal State’s communities was not always practicable. The creation of monti by the Apostolic Camera was undoubtedly an instrument that enabled the popes to finance war expenditure with greater continuity. The Camera’s first monte, Monte della Fede, was founded in 1526 by Clement VII Medici to raise 200,000 gold scudi to cover military expenses against the Turks. The Pope considered an imminent collapse of Christianity against the infidels to be possible, and in April 1542 decided to equip three galleys, in addition to the three already in service. Pope Paul III was aware of the financial problems that might ensue from increased military expenditure, in particular the doubling of the fleet of galleys. Therefore, he ordered the cities and lands under his rule, both mediate and immediate subiectae, to pay, for a period of six months, the amount required to maintain the galleys, crews, provisions and weapons. The greatest effort to equip war galleys in the sixteenth century came under Pope Sixtus V (1585- 1590), who dismantled the ancient consistory system with his bull Immensa Aeterni Dei, 1588, and replaced it with a complex system of fifteen permanent congregations, nine to deal with the spiritual matters of the Church and six with the temporal affairs of the State. In 1588 the Pope enacted a tax of 102,500 scudi per year for a permanent squadron of ten galleys, which patrolled the State’s coasts and took part in naval operations against the Sultan together with allied Catholic fleets.

Problems

Between Frugality and Prosperity: Standard of Living and Consumption Patterns of Castle Personnel in Early 16th Century Sweden

Dag Retsö

The article assesses the nutritional standard of early 16th century Swedish castle personnel as a proxy for their standard of living. It draws on castle inventory lists to present the nutritional standard in terms of quantity and quality and from the standpoint of social differentiation as measured by calorie intake and monetary value. The study shows that nutritional standards of castle personnel were fairly high and class-differentiated, and interprets this as indicating a relatively high standard of living characterized by relative frugality within the upper class and relative prosperity among common castle personnel. The figures fall well in the range of the relatively high general nutritional standards between the late Middle Ages and the late 16th century found by previous research.

Review article

Exploring the Economy of Byzantine Italy

Paolo Tedesco

The sixth century CE was a period of intense - and at times dramatic - political transformation in Italy. While the political and military disruptions may have corresponded to a general economic decline, a number of recent studies have shed light on the specifics of the economic infrastructures and functions of single regions.

Book Reviews

T. Bayoumi, S. Pickford, P. Subacchi (eds.)
Managing complexity. Economic Policy Cooperation after the Crisis
Filippo Di Iorio

Alberto Castelli
Il discorso sulla pace in Europa 1900-1945
Tiziano Torresi

Larry Dwyer, Neelu Seetaram (eds.)
Recent Developments in the Economics of Tourism
Mo Khamouna

Luca Tedesco
Dal libero scambio all’autarchia. Gino Borgatta e gli "interessi dell’economia nazionale"
Valerio Torreggiani

Gennaro Varriale
Arrivano li turchi. Guerra navale e spionaggio nel Mediterraneo (1532-1582)
Fabrizio Filioli Uranio

The Journal of European Economic History - 2016 issue 2