Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T23:46:07.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stock exchange competition: the case of Geneva during the interwar period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2018

Kim Oosterlinck  and
Hugues Pirotte
Kim Oosterlinck*
Affiliation:
Université Libre de Bruxelles and CEPR
Hugues Pirotte
Affiliation:
Université Libre de Bruxelles
*
Corresponding author: K. Oosterlinck, Université libre de Bruxelles, SBS-EM, CEB, 50 av. Roosevelt, CP 114/03, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, koosterl@ulb.ac.be.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite its importance as a financial centre, the historical literature dedicated to the Swiss financial industry remains scarce. Analyses focusing on cantons and cities of the country are even more limited in number. This is unfortunate and is, in all likelihood, linked to the reluctance of financial institutions to share information in a country where banking secrecy has been at the core of the past success of these institutions. Despite this willingness to share as little as possible, some archival funds have gradually become available, most notably after businesses went bankrupt, changed hands, or simply disappeared. The present article relies on these sources to analyse the evolution of the Geneva stock exchange during the interwar period, which saw a gradual decline of its activity. Independent brokers strived to keep their oligopoly over banks. At the same time, Swiss German banks tried to penetrate the canton-controlled marketplace by using their federal rights and strength to become unavoidable actors. They could ultimately help local bankers gain direct access to the Geneva stock exchange, obliterating the power of brokers who were left with no other choice than to appeal to the Canton of Geneva to defend their position.

Keywords

Switzerlandstock exchange competitioninterwar period

JEL classification

D40: General N24: Europe: 1913– G10: General G21: Banks • Depository Institutions • Micro Finance Institutions • Mortgages G34: Mergers • Acquisitions • Restructuring • Corporate Governance G15: International Financial Markets N44: Europe: 1913–
Type
Articles
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , August 2018 , pp. 183 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V. 2018 

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.)

Footnotes

The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees and the editor, Rui Esteves, for their valuable comments. We are also grateful to Maylis Avaro, Vincent Bignon, Damian Clavel, Marc Flandreau, Tobias Straumann, Stefano Ugolini, as well as the participants at the Swiss Clio Workshop (Bern, 2016) for their suggestions and comments.

References

Sources

AEG: Archives de l'État de Genève, AP 305 (Fonds Bourse de Genève).Google Scholar

References

Bordier, A. (1904). Notice sur la Société des Agents de Change de Genève. Geneva: Imprimerie Romet.Google Scholar
Brown, W. O., Mulherin, H. J. and Weidenmier, M. D. (2008). Competing with the New York stock exchange. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(4), pp. 1679–1719.Google Scholar
Cassis, Y. (1991). L'histoire des banques suisses au xixe et xxe siècles, Revue suisse d'histoire, 41, pp. 512–20.Google Scholar
Davis, L. E., Neal, L. and White, E. (2007). The highest price ever: the great NYSE seat sale of 1928–1929 and capacity constraints. Journal of Economic History, 67(3), pp. 705–39.Google Scholar
Dubost, R. (1938). La Bourse de Lyon. Lyon: Bosc frères M. & L. Riou.Google Scholar
Ducros, J. (2018). Rôle des marché financiers et concurrence entre bourses: grandeur et décadence de la Bourse de Lyon, 1800–1945. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Paris Sciences et Lettres PSL Research University, EHESS.Google Scholar
Ducros, J. and Riva, A. (2014). The Lyon stock exchange: a struggle for survival (1866–1914). Paris School of Economics Working Paper, 2014–09.Google Scholar
Ducros, J. and Riva, A. (2017). La Bourse de Lyon et les autres: une première évaluation de la géographie des marchés financiers français au xixe siècle. Revue d'économie industrielle, 4, pp. 47–83.Google Scholar
Faith, N. (1982). Safety in numbers. The Mysterious World of Swiss Banking. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
Georg, E. (1920). Le Comptoir d'Escompte de Genève 1855–1920. Geneva: Comptoir d'Escompte de Genève.Google Scholar
Guex, S. (1999). Les origines du secret bancaire suisse et son rôle dans la politique de la Confédération au sortir de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Genèses, 34, pp. 4–27.Google Scholar
Guex, S. and Mazbouri, M. (2010). L'historiographie des banques et de la place financière suisses aux 19e–20e siècles. Traverse, 17, pp. 203–28.Google Scholar
Hau, H. (2001). Location matters: an examination of trading profits. Journal of Finance, 56(5), pp. 1959–83.Google Scholar
Hautcoeur, P.-C. and Riva, A. (2012). The Paris financial market in the nineteenth century: complementarities and competition in microstructures. Economic History Review, 65(4), pp. 1326–53.Google Scholar
Hautcoeur, P.-C. and Riva, A. (2013). What financiers usually do, and what we can learn from history. Accounting, Economics and Law, 3(3), pp. 313–31.Google Scholar
Joly, H. (2017). Le financement des entreprises industrielles par leurs actionnaires: étude empirique d'un corpus de sociétés lyonnaises (1921–1953). Revue d'économie industrielle 4, pp. 85–106.Google Scholar
Keim, D. and Madhavan, A. (2000). The relationship between stock market movements and NYSE seat prices. Journal of Finance, 55(6), pp. 2817–40.Google Scholar
Killick, J. R. and Thomas, W. A. (1970). The provincial stock exchanges, 1830–1870. Economic History Review, 23(1), pp. 96–111.Google Scholar
Lussy, H., Bonhage, B. and Horn, C. (2001). Schweizerische Wertpapiergeschäfte mit dem ‘Dritten Reich’. Handel, Raub und Restitution. Publications de la CIE, vol. 14. Zürich: Chronos Verlag.Google Scholar
Malkamaki, M. (1999). Are there economies of scale in stock exchange activities? Bank of Finland Discussion Papers, 4/99.Google Scholar
Meier, R. T. and Sigrist, T. (2006). Der helvetische Big Bang. Die Geschichte der SWX Swiss Exchange. Zurich: Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung.Google Scholar
Oosterlinck, K. (2010). French stock exchanges and regulation during World War II. Financial History Review, 17(2), pp. 211–37.Google Scholar
Oosterlinck, K. and Riva, A. (2010). Competition among the French stock exchanges during the Second World War. In Baubeau, P. and Ögren, A. (eds.), Convergence and Divergence of National Financial Systems during the Gold Standards, 1871–1971. London: Pickering and Chatto.Google Scholar
Perrenoud, M., Lopez, R., Adank, F., Baumann, J., Cortat, A. and Peters, S. (2002). La place financière et les banques suisses à l’époque du national-socialisme. Les relations des grandes banques avec l'Allemagne (1931–1946). Publications de la CIE, vol. 13. Lausanne: Payot.Google Scholar
Ramos, S. B. (2003). Competition between exchanges: a survey. FAME research paper, no. 77.Google Scholar
Rosenkranz, P., Straumann, T. and Woitek, U. (2014). A small open economy in the Great Depression: the case of Switzerland. University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Working Papers, 164.Google Scholar
Seitz, J. (1930). Histoire de la Banque à Genève. Geneva: Comptoir d'Escompte.Google Scholar
Société De Banque Suisse, Bulletin mensuel, several issues (1917–47).Google Scholar
Veraghtert, K. (1992). Bruxelles eclipse Anvers. In De Clercq, G. (ed.), A la Bourse: histoire du marché des valeurs en Belgique de 1300 à 1990. Brussels: Duculot.Google Scholar
White, E. N. (2013). Competition among the exchanges before the SEC: was the NYSE a natural hegemon? Financial History Review, 20(1), pp. 29–48.Google Scholar
Willems, H. (2002). A provincial (stock) exchange in Belgium: the case of Dendermonde. Brussels Economic Review = Cahiers Economiques de Bruxelles, 45(3), pp. 37–64.Google Scholar