Financial Innovation and Resilience: A Comparative Perspective on the Public Banks of Naples (1462-1808) (Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance)

"As Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy, says in his Foreword, all economic policy makers today need to re-examine our history to help them confront the challenges of today. This edited volume focuses specifically on the theme of financial innovation and how financial resiliency was achieved in Naples. To highlight both the achievements of the public banks of Naples and their lessons for financial resiliency, the book focuses on financial crises and how they were overcome in Naples in contrast to other European financial systems. The first section focuses on the development of the public banks unique to Naples. The second section compares those with other banking systems and how they responded to the same shock in 1622, caused by the full mobilization of European belligerents to finance their efforts in the Thirty Years War. The next section compares lessons learned in the rest of Europe over the next century and a half. The final section comes back to original start of the narrative arc to suggest ways that today's policymakers and thinkers could use the historical experience of the public banks of Naples to deal better with the ongoing problems stemming from the financial crisis of 2007-08." [source : 4e de couv.] Front Matter ....Pages i-xxxvi The Pattern of Central Bank Development: Past, Present and Future (C. A. E. Goodhart)....Pages 1-14 Front Matter ....Pages 15-15 The Public Banks of Naples Between Financial Innovation and Crisis (Lilia Costabile, Eduardo Nappi)....Pages 17-53 Before the Public Banks: Innovation and Resilience by Charities in Fifteenth-Century Naples (Rosalba Di Meglio)....Pages 55-70 Between Charity and Credit: The Evolution of the Neapolitan Banking System (Sixteenth–Seventeenth Century) (Paola Avallone, Raffaella Salvemini)....Pages 71-93 The Investments of the Neapolitan Public Banks: A Long Run View (1587–1806) (Francesco Balletta, Luigi Balletta, Eduardo Nappi)....Pages 95-123 Front Matter ....Pages 125-125 The Variety of Financial Innovations in European War Finance during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) (Larry Neal)....Pages 127-145 Public Banks and State Finance in Florence and Venice (Luciano Pezzolo)....Pages 147-164 Conflicts, Financial Innovations, and Economic Trends in the Italian States during the Thirty Years’ War (Giuseppe De Luca, Marcella Lorenzini)....Pages 165-185 Experimenting with Paper Money during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum: Monetisation Versus Securitisation, 1643–1663 (D’Maris Coffman)....Pages 187-197 Front Matter ....Pages 199-199 Neapolitan Banks in the Context of Early Modern Public Banks (François R. Velde)....Pages 201-241 The Institutional Foundations of Successful Public Borrowing—Models of Public Banks in Habsburg Austria and Habsburg Naples 1700–1800 (Clemens Jobst)....Pages 243-268 John Law: A Twenty-First Century Banker in the Eighteenth Century? (Antoin E. Murphy)....Pages 269-288 The Bank of Amsterdam’s Search for Success and Stability (Stephen Quinn, William Roberds)....Pages 289-310 Front Matter ....Pages 311-311 Banks, Financial Markets and the Development of International Currencies (Barry Eichengreen)....Pages 313-325 Public Banks, Public Orientation and the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 (Gerald Epstein, Devika Dutt)....Pages 327-343 Profit and Non-profit Motives in the Public Banks of Naples: An Old Model in Modern Perspective (Adriano Giannola)....Pages 345-359 Back Matter ....Pages 361-372