The Origins of National Financial Systems

Since the 19th Century, there has been an accepted distinction between financial systems in which commercial and investment banking are carried out by separate types of firms and those in which 'universal banks' carry out both kinds of operation. The purpose of this comprehensive collection is to establish how and why financial systems have developed - this is important since establishing how financial differentiation occurred in the 19th Century may well afford insight into whether or not the contemporary process of liberalization of financial systems will produce changes in banking structure.
In the 1950s Alexander Gerschenkron argued that universal banks evolved in late-industrializing nations in order to take advantage of structural incentives for economic growth. This book poses a systematic challenge to the Gerschenkron thesis. With contributions from leading scholars such as Ranald Michie and Jaime Reis, this well written book provides solid and intriguing arguments throughout.
The Origins of Financial Systems will be of interest to students and academics in several fields such as economic and financial history as well as international finance in general.

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Table of contents : Douglas J. Forsyth Introduction
1. Daniel Verdier Explaining Cross-National Variations in Universal Banking in 19th Century Europe, North America and Australasia
2. Ranald Michie Banks and Securities Markets, 1870-1914
3. Joost Jonker Competing in Tandem: Securities Markets and Commercial Banking Patterns in Europe during the 19th Century
4. Richard Deeg On the Development of Universal Banking in Germany
5. Alessandro Polsi The Early Development of Mixed Banking in Italy in an Adverse Institutional Context, 1850-1914
6. Michel Lescure The Origins of Universal Banks in France during the 19th Century
7. Håkan Lindgren and Hans Sjögren Banking Systems as 'Ideal Types' and as Political Economy: The Swedish Case, 1820-1914
8. Sverre Knutsen The Development of a Hybrid Structure in Norway: Banks and Economic Change in the European Periphery, 1870-1913
9. Don K. Rowney Universal Banking in Russia
10. Jaime Reis Bank Structures, Gerschenkron and Portugal (pre-1914)