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