Tariff protection in Sweden, 1885–1914

Abstract

The Swedish finance company crisis was a kind of “run” that happened in September, 1990. It marked the beginning of the Swedish banking crisis of the early 1990s. The crisis was initially focused on the finance company Nyckeln. The specific negative information about Nyckeln is identified, and so is the extreme lateness with which it reached, if at all, the supervisory authority and the banks that were involved in lending to the finance companies. The paper then inquires whether there were warning signs of the forthcoming crisis in capital market and other public information, by means of the usual event study methodology. The data employed include indices for the banking industry and the real estate and construction industry, and share prices and trading volume for finance companies. The conclusion is that the crisis really came as a surprise, with very little advance warning.     

Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694–1844

From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694, the Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to support the British private economy and to support an increasingly centralised British state. The Bank helped the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in the international economic order. In this paper, we deploy recalibrated financial data to analyse an evolving trajectory of connections between the British economy, the state, and the Bank of England. We show how these connections contributed to form an effective and efficient fiscal–naval state and promote the development of a system of financial intermediation for the economy. This symbiotic relationship became stronger after 1793. The evidence that we consider here shows that although the Bank was nominally a private institution and profits were paid to its shareholders, it was playing a public role well before Bagehot's doctrine.     

Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885–2008: Evidence from eight countries

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been absent from recent debates about comparative long-run growth owing to the lack of data on aggregate economic performance before 1950. This paper provides estimates of GDP per capita on an annual basis for eight Anglophone African economies for the period since 1885, raising new questions about previous characterizations of the region's economic performance. The new data show that many of these economies had levels of per capita income which were above subsistence by the early twentieth century, on a par with the largest economies in Asia until the 1980s. However, overall improvements in GDP per capita were limited by episodes of negative growth or “shrinking”, the scale and scope of which can be measured through annual data.     

Credits of export-import bank to Finland, 1945–48

Abstract

When Finland signed the armistice with the USSR and Great Britain in the autumn of 1944, Sweden promised considerable economic aid to the Finns, but she made it clear that because of her limited means she could not remain sole benefactor. Great Britain had announced that because of her difficult economic position, no credit could be considered; the Finns therefore turned to the United States, a move that even the Soviets expected.     

Current Account and Fiscal Policy in Japan: 1885–1991

This paper explores the empirical relationship between the current account balance and macroeconomic series for the Japanese economy over the years 1885–1991. The long-run equilibrium depends on which series (public debt or budget deficits) affects assets relative to a capital stock rate. Departing from the Ricardian Equivalence structure (no bequest motives), fiscal policy in Japan is shown to be more related to the current account when policy is introduced by shifts in tax revenues rather than by changes in national debt.     

Coal exports and British shipping, 1850–1913

We export of British coal was a major feature of late 19th-century ocean shipping. It has often been argued that British coal was key to the success of British shipping, but close examination raises doubts. Most British coal went to European ports where British ships carried a smaller proportion of the trade than they did in more distant trades. Shared costs between outward and homeward freights created an important relationship between coal freight rates and the freight rates on imports into northwestern Europe. In general, however, there seems to be little connection between Britain's shipping success and the export of coal.     

The note issues of the bank of Sweden, 1668–1968

Abstract

Bank notes have a long history in Sweden. The first to have all the main characteristics of a bank note were issued in 1661 by Stockholms Banco. After the liquidation of that bank, caused by the over-issue of notes, the Riksbank in 1668 founded a new bank, Riksens Standers Bank (the Bank of the Estates of the Realm), now known as Sveriges Riksbank (the Bank of Sweden). This bank was initially prohibited by its statutes from issuing notes, but from the very year of its inception the public, against the will of the Bank, used certain papers intended for the internal operation of the Bank as substitute bank notes, and in 1701 the Bank introduced instruments of payment out of which bank notes proper subsequently developed.     

The Norwegian market for British Shipbuilding, 1945–1967

Abstract

The British Shipbuilding industry experienced a process of both competitive and comparative decline during the period 1945 to 1967 — when the world market for ships was at its most vibrant. The present article seeks to analyse this decline through an examination of the loss of the industry's most important export market — Norway. It is argued that issues such as price, failure to meet delivery dates and to offer competitive credit terms, were all factors in British shipbuilding's loss of market share in Norway. Ultimately British shipbuilders retained a production oriented strategy in a market which was being revolutionised in both structural and technological terms. The failure to adopt a marketing oriented strategy, therefore, underpinned the failure of the British shipbuilding industry in the Norwegian market and would also account for its failure in the domestic market.     

The bank of France and the sterilization of gold, 1926–1932

The malfunctioning of the interwar gold standard is frequently ascribed to sterilization of gold flows by central banks, particularly the Bank of France. This paper analyzes the actions of the Bank of France and the issue of sterilization. New estimates of the impact of policy on the Bank of France's gold reserves indicate that, of the policies which ostensibly influenced gold flows, only the absence of expansionary open market operations, which were precluded by statute, significantly affected French reserves. Those statutes and the sentiment which led to their adoption are in turn ascribed to France's experience with inflation earlier in the decade. Thus, the gold standard's collapse in the 1930s is linked to the circumstances under which it was reconstructed in the 1920s.     

Of poisoners, tanners and the British Raj: redefining Chamar identity in colonial North India, 1850–90

This article explores colonial representations of the crime of cattle poisoning and uses it as a starting point to investigate questions related to the formation of Chamar identity. Starting from the 1850s, it looks at the process whereby the caste group was imbued with certain undesirable traits of character. Simultaneously, it also explores the larger trend towards fixing the caste with certain occupational traits, so that it began to be identified completely with leather work by late nineteenth century. The role of new specialisms such as ethnography, toxicology and medical jurisprudence in the formation of new definitions about Chamars is also highlighted. The overall aim of the article is to reveal the complexities involved in the formation of colonial discourse about caste and caste groups.     

Denmark in China 1839–65: A pawn in a British game

Abstract

Denmark's trading connections with China date back to the seventeenth century, but it was not until the establishment of Asiatisk Kompagni (the Danish Asiatic Company) in 1732 that they became at all regular. In the period between the Company's foundation and the outbreak of war with England in 1807, 124 ships were sent to China; imported Chinese products were the basis of the trade, and of course the Danish market was too small to absorb such a volume of business. The China trade was therefore primarily a transit trade with Copenhagen as the entrepôt: conditions for this were particularly favourable during periods of war between the European great powers when, by virtue of their neutrality, Danish ships were able to take over a major share in supplying the north-west European market. The war of 1807–14 with England, however, entirely changed both the external political and the internal economic conditions for the continuation of this traffic. Thus the exceptionally large-scale and, by Danish standards, profitable operations of Asiatisk Kompagni in the eighteenth century were emphatically a passing phenomenon produced by the peculiar business conditions of the time.¹     

Was there a Fall in the Return to Educational Investment in Norway, 1885–1955?

Abstract

The main results from this study are that private educational investment has proved a profitable investment throughout the whole period, but that there was a long-term decline in profitability, most of all in investment in the Upper Secondary Schools compared to primary education, where, in the 1950s, the profitability was zero or even negative. An important finding also is that this was not due to the sharpening emphasis on the progressive personal taxation. Of three possible explanations, the most plausible seems to be that there might have been an excess supply of college and academy candidates over the whole century.     

‘Los von London’: A comparative,empirical analysis of German and British global foreign banking and trade development, 1881–1913

The role of finance in the development of trade draws increasing attention from economists and economic historians. Yet empirical studies, especially from an historical perspective, continue to be scarce. This study analyses the role of German and British foreign banks in the internationalisation of trade during the first globalisation. It creates a novel data set on the bilateral trade of Germany and Great Britain with the rest of the world and the number and geographical distribution of German and British foreign banks between 1881 and 1913. Using an augmented gravity model of trade, the article shows that banks had a significant positive impact on exports and imports and that this effect was even more pronounced in case of German banks and trade. Moreover, the effect of German banks on trade is the highest in the years closer to bank entry, supporting the idea of German banks being initiators of trade. In contrast, the effect of British banks seems constant over time.     

Shadow banking,macroprudential policy,and bank stability: Evidence from China’s wealth management product market

This study examines whether shadow banking activities reduce the stability of 269 commercial banks in China, and if they do, whether a tightening macroprudential policy could mitigate this negative effect. A quarterly bank level, unbalanced panel data of wealth management products (WMPs) from 2006 to 2018 measured China’s shadow banking activities. The results show that China’s shadow banking activities weaken the stability of banks, especially for principal-floating WMPs, long-term WMPs, and WMPs issued to individual investors. China’s macroprudential supervision improves the soundness of banks and eases the negative effects of shadow banking on banking stability. Our results suggest the necessity to design specific macroprudential policies based on different kinds of shadow banking activities and different types of banks.