Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:54:02.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Financial Market and Government Debt Policy in France, 1746–1793

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

François R. Velde  and
David R. Weir
François R. Velde
Affiliation:
Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
David R. Weir
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article offers a new quantitative history of the market for government debt in France before the Revolution. The monarchy was a persistent default risk because of institutional obstacles to raising taxes. Default followed observable rules in targeting specific assets. The financial market reflected both facts: interest rates were high on the safest assets and ranged higher on the most likely default targets. The cost of all forms of new borrowing became substantially higher than the yields on old debt, resulting in increasing government reliance on expensive life annuities.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 1 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1992

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

Aftalion, Florin, L'économie de la Révolution française (Paris, 1987).Google Scholar
Allen, Robert, “The Price of Freehold Land and the Interest Rate in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Economic History Review, 2nd series 41 (02 1988), pp. 33–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alter, George, and Riley, James C., “How to Bet on Lives: A Guide to Life Contingent Contracts in Early Modern Europe,” Research in Economic History, 10 (1986).Google Scholar
Bien, David, “Offices, Corps, and a System of State Credit: The Uses of Privilege under the Ancien Régime,” in Baker, Keith, ed., The French Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture (Oxford, 1987), vol. 1, pp. 89–114.Google Scholar
Bordo, Michael D., and White, Eugene N., “A Tale of Two Currencies: British and French Finance During the Napoleonic Wars,” this Journal, 51 (06 1991), pp. 303–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosher, John F., French Finances, 1770–1795: From Business to Bureaucracy (Cambridge, 1970).Google Scholar
Bossenga, Gail, “Taxes,” in Furet, François and Ozouf, Mona, eds., A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 1989), pp. 582–90.Google Scholar
Brewer, John, The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688–1783 (New York, 1989).Google Scholar
Caix de, Saint-Aymour, Les Boullongne (Paris, 1919).Google Scholar
Calonne, Charles Alexandre de, Discours sur les finances prononcée de l'ordre du roi et en sa présence par M. de Calonne, contrôleur-général des finances, dans l'Assemblée des notables, tenue à Versailles, le 22 février 1787 (Versailles, 1787).Google Scholar
Calonne, Charles Alexandre de, Réponse de M. de Calonne à l'écrit de M. Necker, publiée en avril, 1787 (London, 1788).Google Scholar
Clamageran, Jean-Jules, Histoire de l'impôt en France (Paris, 1876).Google Scholar
Clark, Gregory, “The Cost of Capital and Medieval Agricultural Technique,” Explorations in Economic History, 25 (07 1988), pp. 265–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clay, Christopher, “The Price of Freehold Land in the Later Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Economic History Review, 2nd series 27 (05 1974), pp. 173–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courtois, Alphonse, Tableaux des cours des principales valeurs (2nd edn., Paris, 1873).Google Scholar
Cramer, Marc, “Les trente demoiselles de Genève et les billets solidaires,” Revue Suisse d'Économie Politique, 82 (1946), pp. 109–38.Google Scholar
Deparcieux, Antoine, Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine (Paris, 1746).Google Scholar
Deyon, Pierre, Contribution à l'étude des revenus fonciers en Picardie (Lille, 1970).Google Scholar
Dickson, P. G. M., The Sun Insurance Office, 1710–1960 (London, 1960).Google Scholar
Dickson, P. G. M., The Financial Revolution in England (London, 1967).Google Scholar
Doyle, William, “The Parlements of France and the Breakdown of the Ancien Régime, 1770–1788,” French Historical Studies, 6 (Fall 1970), pp. 415–58.Google Scholar
Egret, Jean, La Pré-Révolution française (Paris, 1962).Google Scholar
Egret, Jean, Louis XV et l'opposition parlementaire (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar
Egret, Jean, Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers (Neuchâtel, 1765).Google Scholar
Egret, Jean, Encyclopédie Méthodique (Paris, 1784).Google Scholar
Frêche, Georges, Toulouse et la région Midi-Pyrénées au siècle des Lumières (Paris, 1974).Google Scholar
Gayer, A., Rostow, W. W., and Schwartz, A. J., The Growth and Fluctuations of the British Economy (Oxford, 1953).Google Scholar
Great Britain, Central Statistical Office, Statistical Abstract.Google Scholar
Grellier, J. J., The Terms of All the Loans (3rd edn., London, 1805).Google Scholar
Guéry, Alain, “Les finances de la monarchie française sous l'Ancien Régime,” Annales ESC, 33 (mars–avril 1978), pp. 216–39.Google Scholar
Harris, Robert D., Necker: Reform Statesman of the Ancien Régime (Berkeley, 1979).Google Scholar
Harris, Robert D., Necker and the Revolution of 1789 (Lanham, MD, 1986).Google Scholar
Harris, Seymour E., The Assignats (Cambridge, MA, 1930).Google Scholar
Loménie, de, “Les polémiques financières de Mirabeau,” Journal des Économistes 5e série, 36 (10, 12 1886), pp. 5–30, 157–77.Google Scholar
Lüthy, Herbert, La banque protestante en France de la révocation de l'edit de Nantes à la Révolution (Paris, 1961).Google Scholar
Marion, Marcel, Histoire financière de la France depuis 1715 (Paris, 1914).Google Scholar
Martin, J., Etrennes financières (Paris, 1789).Google Scholar
Massac, R. de, Manuel des rentes (Paris, 1783).Google Scholar
Mathias, Peter, and O'Brien, Patrick, “Taxation in Britain and France, 1715–1810: A Comparison of the Social and Economic Incidence of the Taxes Collected for the Central Governments,” Journal of European Economic History, 5 (Winter 1976), pp. 601–53.Google Scholar
Mirabeau, H. G. R., Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau sur l'administration de M. Necker (Paris, 1787).Google Scholar
Mirowski, Philip, “What Do Markets Do? Efficiency Tests of the 18th-Century London Stock Market,” Explorations in Economic History, 24 (04 1987), pp. 107–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morellet, Abbé, Mémoire sur la situation actuelle de la Compagnie des Indes (Paris, 1769).Google Scholar
Neal, Larry, The Rise of Financial Capitalism: International Capital Markets in the Age of Reason (Cambridge, 1990).Google Scholar
Necker, Jacques, Compte-rendu au roi au mois de mars, 1781 (Paris, 1781).Google Scholar
Necker, Jacques, De l'administration des finances de la France (Paris, 1784).Google Scholar
Necker, Jacques, Mémoire publiée par M. Necker au mois d'avril 1787, en réponse au discours prononcée par M. de Calonne devant l'Assemblée des notables (Paris, 1787).Google Scholar
North, Douglass, and Weingast, Barry, “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England,” this Journal, 49 (12 1989), pp. 803–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Patrick, “The Political Economy of British Taxation, 1660–1815,” Economic History Review, 2nd series 41 (02 1988), pp. 1–32.Google Scholar
Panchaud, Isaac, Réflexions sur l'état actuel du crédit public de l'Angleterre et de la France (Paris, 1781).Google Scholar
Parker, R. A. C., Coke of Norfolk (Oxford, 1975).Google Scholar
Poitrineau, Abel, La vie rurale en Basse-Auvergne au XVIIIe siècle (1726–1789) (Aurillac, 1965).Google Scholar
Pothier, Robert-Joseph, Traité de la constitution de rente (Paris, 1773).Google Scholar
Riley, James C., International Government Finance and the Amsterdam Capital Market, 1740–1815 (Cambridge, 1980).Google Scholar
Riley, James C., The Seven Years War and the Old Regime in France: The Economic and Financial Toll (Princeton, 1986).Google Scholar
Riley, James C., “French Finances, 1727–1768,” Journal of Modern History, 59 (06 1987), pp. 209–43.Google Scholar
Rogers, James E. Thorold, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, vol. 7 (Oxford, 1902).Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, “Credit Markets and Economic Change in Southeastern France, 1630–1788” (unpublished paper, UCLA, 05 1991).Google Scholar
Saint-Jacob, Pierre, Les paysans de Bourgogne du Nord au dernier siècle de l'Ancien Régime (Dijon, 1960).Google Scholar
Shakespeare, Howard J., France: The Royal Loans—Les Emprunts Royaux, 1689–1789 (Shrewsbury, 1986).Google Scholar
Shennan, J. H., The Parlement of Paris (London, 1968).Google Scholar
Taylor, George, “The Paris Bourse on the Eve of the Revolution, 1781–1789,” American Historical Review, 67 (09 1962), pp. 951–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velde, François R., and Sargent, Thomas J., “The Macro-economic Causes and Consequences of the French Revolution” (unpublished manuscript, Hoover Instsitution, 12 1990).Google Scholar
Véri, Joseph-Alphonse de, Journal (Paris, 1928–1930).Google Scholar
Vührer, Alphonse, Histoire de la dette publique en France (Paris, 1886).Google Scholar
Wailly, Natalis de, Mémoire sur les variations de la livre tournois (Paris, 1857).Google Scholar
Weber, Henry, La Compagnie française des Indes (1604–1875) (Paris, 1904).Google Scholar
Weiller, Kenneth J., and Mirowski, Philip, “Rates of Interest in 18th Century England,” Explorations in Economic History, 27 (01 1990), pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, David R., “Tontines, Public Finance, and Revolution in France and England, 1688–1789,” this Journal, 49 (03 1989), pp. 95–124.Google Scholar
Weir, David R., “Crises économiques et les origines de la Révolution française,” Annales: ESC, 46 (juillet-août 1991), pp. 917–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, David R., and Velde, François R., “The Financial Market and Government Debt Policy in France, 1752–1793” (paper given at the second International Congress of the Cliometrics Society in Santander, Spain, 1989).Google Scholar
White, Eugene N., “Was There a Solution to the Ancien Régime's Financial Dilemma?,” this Journal, 49 (09 1989), pp. 545–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar