I review recent monographs on the history of monetary and international financial regimes, which have explored the origins of the gold standard and the extent and sources of capital market integration. The studies of the emergence of the gold standard have adopted variously long term and shorter term perspectives, and arrive at different conclusions concerning the relative contributions of technological and political factors. The histories of capital markets document the extent and sources of the openness of late nineteenth century capital markets, and reach conflicting conclusions on the role that the gold standard played in capital market integration.