A History of European Banking

The marked intensification on a global scale of financial activity since the last war and the resultant acceleration in financial innovation have led to the burgeoning of the international banking sector during the past two decades. This expansion is however far from unique. The financial sector has undergone many periods of growth from late Antiquity until the Second World War all of which ultimately helped to shape the latest era of economic expansion in European history. Today's new banking techniques are mostly the result of an age-long process of technical advance. If we are to understand modern banking and to predict its future development it has to be situated in its historical context and its European origins examined. This book provides an overview of technical progress in the banking sector throughout the centuries while simultaneously telling the story of European banks and bankers and in particular their impact upon the world economy and global politics. It also presents new hypotheses concerning the history of European banking and offers new explanations with regard to politics and finance.