A History of Interest Rates

SIDNEY HOMER, who died in 1983, was a limited partner in Salomon Brothers and was the general partner in charge of the firm's bond market research department. He is best known for his pioneering and analytical works of bond market history and the economic forces that drive bond market trends. RICHARD SYLLA is Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets and a Professor of Economics, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at NYU's Stern School of Business. He is a past president of the Economic History Association and is a trustee of the Museum of American Financial History.

Foreword by Dr. Henry Kaufman vii Preface to the Fourth Edition ix Summary Tables xiii Summary Charts xvii Introduction 1 Part One. Ancient Times Chapter 1. Prehistoric and Primitive Credit and Interest 17 2. Mesopotamia: Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria 25 3. Greece 32 4. Rome 44 5. A Summary and Analysis of Ancient Interest Rates 57 Part Two. Medieval and Renaissance Europe6. Usury Doctrines and Their Effect on European Credit Forms and Interest 67 7. The Dark Ages 80 8. Late Medieval Times 87 9. The Renaissance 102 10. A Summary and Analysis of Medieval and Renaissance Interest Rates in Western Europe 132 Part Three. Modern Europe and North America to 1900 11. England in the Eighteenth Century 145 12. Europe in the Eighteenth Century 164 13. England in the Nineteenth Century 178 14. France in the Nineteenth Century 213 15. Other European Countries in the Nineteenth Century 230 16. The United States in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 270 Part Four. Europe and North America Since 1900 17. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 19001945 329 18. The United States in the Twentieth Century: 19461990 366 19. England in the Twentieth Century 437 20. Europe in the Twentieth Century: France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy 462 21. Europe in the Twentieth Century: Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Ireland, Iberia, and Turkey 523 22. Canada in the Twentieth Century 545 23. Summary and Analysis of Interest Rates in Europe and North America Since 1700 554 Part Five. Other Countries and the 1990s24. Japan 575 25. The Old Sterling Area: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Pakistan 586 26. Russia 598 27. China 613 28. Latin America 626 29. Turn of the Millennium: 19902005 642 Notes 673 Index 693