In this paper I combine long multi-country time series data for interest rates and stock returns with the institutional evidence for much earlier centuries amassed by economic historians to study the question of financial globalization and how it has altered since the late classical era. At their longest, for Dutch and English short-term interest rates, the quantitative data that I use extend back slightly more than three centuries. The institutional history provides information on an additional millennium's worth of experience. The conclusion that I reach is that the internationalization of money and finance and the globalization of financial markets are not new phenomena. They are part of an evolutionary process that began much earlier and that has continued, albeit with periodic interruptions and reversals, for many centuries. What we see today is simply the latest and most advanced manifestation of this process.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
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Maurice Obstfeld & Alan M. Taylor, 2003.
"Globalization and Capital Markets,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Globalization in Historical Perspective, pages 121-188
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]
Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2000.
"When Did Globalization Begin?,"
NBER Working Papers
7632, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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