Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T14:58:56.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Economic Crisis of 1619 to 1623

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Charles P. Kindleberger
Charles P. Kindleberger
Affiliation:
The author is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Various states in the Holy Roman Empire prepared for the Thirty Years' War by creating new mints and debasing the subsidiary coinage. The process spread through Gresham's Law: bad money was taken by debasing states to their neighbors and exchanged for good. The neighbor typically defended itself by debasing its own coin. The resulting hyperinflation was terminated early in the war by an agreement to return to the Imperial Augsburg Ordinance of 1559. The Kipper- und Wipperzeit, as the period is called, illuminates the geographic spread of financial crises, German hypennflations of this century, and current proposals for “free banking.”

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 149 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Attman, Artur, American Bullion in the European World Trade, 1600–1800 (Goteborg, 1986).Google Scholar
Barbour, Violet, Capitalism and Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century (paperback edn., Ann Arbor, MI, 1966).Google Scholar
Bernholz, Peter, “Currency Competition, Inflation, Gresham's Law and Exchange Rate,” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 145 (09 1989), pp.469–88.Google Scholar
Bisson, Thomas N., Conservation of Coinage: Monetary Exploitation and Its Restraint in France, Catalonia and Aragon, c 1000–1225 A.D. (Oxford, 1979).Google Scholar
Bogucka, Maria, “The Monetary Crisis of the XVIIth Century and Its Social and Psychological Consequences in Poland,” Journal of European Economic History, 4 (Spring 1975), pp. 137–52.Google Scholar
Braudel, Fernand, The Structure of Everyday Life, vol. 1 of Civilization & Capitalism, 15th–18th Century (New York, 1986).Google Scholar
Braudel, Fernand, The Wheels of Commerce, vol. 2 of Civilization & Capitalism, 15th–18th Century (New York, 1986).Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. M., The English East India Company: The Study of an Early Joint-Stock Company, 1600–1640 (London, 1965).Google Scholar
de, Roover, Gresham on Foreign Exchange: An Essay on Early English Mercantilism (Cambridge, MA, 1949).Google Scholar
dtv (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag), Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Karten und Chronologischer Abriss, vol. 1, Von den Anfängen bis zur Franzöischen Revolution (Munich, 1964).Google Scholar
de Vries, Jan, The Economy of Europe in the Age of Crisis, 1600–1750 (New York, 1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenberg, Richard, Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance: A Study of the Fuggers, translated from the 1898 German edn. (New York, 1928).Google Scholar
Einaudi, Luigi, “The Theory of Imaginary Money from Charlemagne to the French Revolution,” translated from the Italian of 1936, in Lane, F. C. and Riersma, J. C., eds., Enterprise and Secular Change (Homewood, IL, 1953), pp. 229–61.Google Scholar
Ellis, Howard E., German Monetary Theory, 1905–1933 (Cambridge, MA, 1934).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elsas, M. J., Umriss einer Geschichte der Preise und Löhne in Deutschland, 3 vols. (Leiden, 1936, 1940, 1949).Google Scholar
Feaveryear, , Sir Albert, , The Pound Sterling: A History of British Money, 2nd edn., rev. by Morgan, E. Victor (Oxford, 1963).Google Scholar
Friedrichs, Christopher R., Urban Society in an Age of War: Nördlingen, 1580–1720 (Princeton, 1979).Google Scholar
Gaettens, Richard, Geschichte des Inflationen, 2nd edn. (Minden, 1986).Google Scholar
Glamann, Kristof, “European Trade, 1500–1750,” in Cipolla, Carlo M., ed., The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Glasgow, 1974), pp. 427–526.Google Scholar
Gould, J. S., “The Trade Depression of the Early 1620s,” Economic History Review, 2nd series, 7 (08 1954), pp. 81–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckscher, Eli F., An Economic History of Sweden, translated by Ohlin, Göran (Cambridge, MA, 1954).Google Scholar
Henning, Friederich-Wilhelm, Das vorindustrielle Deutschland, 800 bis 1800 (Paderborn, 1974).Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. J., “The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century,” in Aston, Trevor, ed., Crisis in Europe, 1560–1660: Essays from Past and Present (London, 1965), pp. 5–58.Google Scholar
Hoskins, W. G., “Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic History, 1480–1619,” Agricultural History Review, 12 (Summer 1964), pp. 28–46.Google Scholar
Hoszowski, St., Les prix à Lwow (XVIe—XVIIe siècles), translated from the Polish (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar
Judge, A. V., “Philip Burlamachi: A Financier of the Thirty Years' War,” Economica, 6 (11 1926), pp. 285–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellenbenz, Hermann, Sephardim an der unteren Elbe: Ihre wirtschaftliche und politische Bedeutung von Ende des 16. bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1958).Google Scholar
Kindleberger, C. P., “International Propagation of Financial Crises: The Experience of 1886–1893,” in Kindleberger, C. P., Keynesianism vs. Monetarism and Other Essays in Financial History (London, 1985), pp. 226–39.Google Scholar
Kindleberger, C. P., Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, 2nd edn. (New York, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kindleberger, C. P., “The Panic of 1873,” in White, Eugene N., ed., Crashes and Panics: The Lessons from History (Homewood, IL, 1990), pp. 69–84.Google Scholar
Kindleberger, C. P., “Spenders and Hoarders: The World Distribution of Spanish American Silver, 1550–1750,” in Kindleberger, C. P., Historical Economics: Art or Science? (Berkeley, CA, 1990), pp. 35–85.Google Scholar
Kindleberger, C. P., “International (and Interregional) Aspects of Financial Crises” (National Bureau of Economic Research conference volume, forthcoming).Google Scholar
Klíma, Arnošt, “Inflation in Bohemia in the Early Stage of the 17th Century,” in Flinn, Michael, ed., Seventh International Economic History Congress (Edinburgh, 1978), pp. 375–86.Google Scholar
Langer, Herbert, Kulturgeschichte des 30 jähriges Krieges (Leipzig, 1978).Google Scholar
Macauley, Thomas Babington, History of England from the Accession of James II, vol. 4 (London, 1948).Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur, “Some Questions about the Weimar Republic and Possible Parallels in the Developed Democracies Today,” in Koslowski, Peter, ed., Individual Liberty and Democratic Decision-Making (Tübingen, 1987), pp. 127–41.Google Scholar
Opel, J. C., “Deutsche Finanznoth beim Beginn der dreissigjährische Krieges,” Historische Zeitschrift, 16 (1966), pp. 213–68.Google Scholar
Parker, Geoffrey, “The Emergence of Modern Finance in Europe, 1500–1730,” in Cipolla, Carlo M., ed., The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Glasgow, 1974), pp. 529–94.Google Scholar
Parker, , Geoffrey, , The Thirty Years' War, rev. ed. (London, 1987).Google Scholar
Phelps, Brown E. H., and Hopkins, Sheila V., “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables Compared with Builders' Wage-Rates,” Economica, n.s. 23, 92 (11 1956), pp. 296–314.Google Scholar
Posthumus, N. W., Nederlandische Prijsgeschiednis, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1943).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapp, Richard T., Industry and Economic Decline in Seventeenth-Century Venice (Cambridge, MA, 1976).Google Scholar
Redlich Fritz, De Praeda Militari: Looting and Booty, 1500–1815, Beihefte 39 to Viertelsjahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1956.Google Scholar
Redlich, Fritz, Die deutsche Inflation des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts in der zeitgenössischen Literatur: Die Kipper und Wipper (Cologne, 1972).Google Scholar
Romano, Ruggerio, “Italy in the Crisis of the Seventeenth Century,” in Earle, Peter, ed., Essays in European Economic History, 1500–1800 (Oxford, 1974), pp. 185–98.Google Scholar
Schöttle, Gustav, “Die grosse deutsche Geldkrise von 1620–23 und ihr Verlauf in Oberschwaben,” in Würtembergische Vierteljahrshefte für Landesgeschichte, N.F., 30 (1921), pp. 36–57.Google Scholar
Schöttle, Gustav, “Münz- und Geldgeschichte in ihren Zusammenhang mit der jenigen Schwabens,” in Würtembergische Vierteljahrshefte für Landesgeschichte, N.F.,31(1922–1924), pp. 54–128.Google Scholar
Shaw, William A., The History of Currency (London, 1895).Google Scholar
Shaw, William A., “The Monetary Movements of 1600–21 in Holland and Germany,” in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, n.s., 9 (1895), pp. 189–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, Jose-Gentil da, Banque et crédit en Italie au XVIIe siècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1969).Google Scholar
Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, Cannan, edn. (New York, 1937).Google Scholar
Spooner, Frank C., The International Economy and Monetary Movements in France, 1493–1725 (Cambridge, MA, 1972).Google Scholar
Steinberg, Siegfried Henry, “The Thirty Years' War: Economic Life,” in Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edn. (1968), vol. 21 (Soelman-Timmins), p. 1060.Google Scholar
Stuart, James Montgomery, The History of Free Trade in Tuscany, with Remarks on Its Progress in the Rest of Italy (London, 1876).Google Scholar
Supple, Barry E., “Thomas Mun and the Commercial Crisis, 1623,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 27 (05 1954), pp. 91–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supple, Barry E., “Currency and Commerce in the Early Seventeenth Century,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 10 (05 1957), pp. 239–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supple, Barry E., Commercial Crisis and Change in England, 1600–1642 (Cambridge, 1959).Google Scholar
Thirsk, Joan, and Cooper, J. P., eds., Seventeenth-Century Economic Documents (Oxford, 1972).Google Scholar
Tilly, Richard, Financial Institutions and Industrialization in the Rhineland, 1815–1870 (Madison, WI, 1966).Google Scholar
Trevor-Roper, H. R., “The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century,” in Aston, Trevor, ed., Crisis in Europe, 1560–1660: Essays from Past and Present (London, 1965), pp. 59–75.Google Scholar
van der Wee, Herman, “Industrial Dynamics and the Process of Urbanization and De-urbanization in the Low Countries from the Late Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century: A Synthesis,” in van der Wee, Herman, ed., The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and the Low Countries (Late Middle Ages–Early Modern Times) (Leuven, 1988), pp. 307–81.Google Scholar
van Klavaren, Jacob, General Economic History, 100–1760: From the Roman Empire to the Industrial Revolution (Munich, 1969).Google Scholar
Vilar, Pierre, A History of Gold and Money, 1450–1920, translated from the 1969 Spanish original (London, 1976).Google Scholar
Wilson, Charles, The Transformation of Europe, 1558–1648 (Berkeley, 1976).Google Scholar
Wolowski, Louis, La question monétaire, 3rd edn. (Paris, 1869).Google Scholar
Wuttke, Robert, “Zur Kipper- und Wipperzeit in Kursachsen,” in Neue Archiv für Sachsiche Geschichte und Alterstumkunde, 15 (1916), pp. 119–56.Google Scholar