DP5940 The Bell Jar: Commercial Interest Rates between Two Revolutions, 1688-1789

Author(s):	Marc Flandreau, Christophe Galimard, Clemens Jobst, Pilar Nogues-Marco
Publication Date:	November 2006
Keyword(s):	early financial derivative products, financial development, financial integration, interest rates
JEL(s):	F31, N23
Programme Areas:	International Macroeconomics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=5940

This paper exploits arbitrage conditions for bills of exchange with different maturities to provide new evidence on commercial interest rates in Amsterdam, London, and Paris during the 18th century. The lesson that emerges is that commercial interest rates were very low in all three centers and did not differ much from one location to another. This suggests that a transnational capital market resulting from the Commercial Revolution pre-dated to the British 'Financial Revolution' of the 18th century.