The Early History of Financial Economics, 1478-1776

From Commercial Arithmetic to Life Annuities and Joint Stocks


by

Geoffrey Poitras


Published by: Edward Elgar Publishing
Aldershot, UK (2000)


Book Jacket Cover

Errata List

Edmond Halley

Jan de Witt


Table of Contents



Click here for Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction


Chapter 2: History of Commerce and Finance

Appendix: Selected Life Annuity Price Series and Issue Sizes

Chapter 3: Scholastic Analysis of Usury and Other Subjects

Appendix: William Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"

Chapter 4: The Evolution of Commercial Arithmetic

Appendix: Selected Compound Interest Tables

Chapter 5: Simple Interest and Compound Interest

Appendix: Life Annuity Table from Price (1772)

Chapter 6: Valuation of Life Annuities

Appendix: Excerpts from the "Valuation of Life Annuities...", de Witt (1671)

Chapter 7: Foreign Exchange and the Bill Market

Appendix: Some Common Monetary Units

Chapter 8: Emergence and Valuation of Joint Stocks

Appendix: Selected Stock Price and Dividend Series

Chapter 9: Development of Derivative Securities

Appendix: English Translation of Isaac de Pinto'sJeu d'Actions en Hollande

Chapter 10: Manias, Manipulations and Institutional Failures

Appendix: 'The Bubble', Jonathan Swift (1721)

Chapter 11: English Debates over Interest Rates and Public Credit

Appendix: British and Dutch Interest Rates, 17th-18th C.

Chapter 12: Maritime Insurance, Life Insurance and Other Subjects

Appendix: The Francis (1853) list of South Sea Bubble Era Assurance Schemes

Chapter 13: Some Speculative Conclusions


Bibliography


Index





Information on ordering can be obtained by emailing poitras@sfu.ca OR barbara.slater@ald.e-elgar.co.uk