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The Stop of the Exchequer and the Secondary Market for English Sovereign Debt, 1677–1705

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2019

Ling-Fan Li*
Affiliation:
Ling-Fan Li is Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, National Tsing Hua University, R703, TSMC Building, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013. E-mail: lilf@mx.nthu.edu.tw.

Abstract

Based on information related to the Stop of Exchequer, 1672, this article calculates the current yields of sovereign debt and examines the effect of the Glorious Revolution on the government’s credibility. The results show that even though the interest payment had not been paid for years, when Parliament authorized the resumption of payment, the current yields fell not only below the level when the interest payment was made by Charles II, but quickly converged to the rates of return of alternative investment. The movement of current yields supports that the constitutional change of 1689 did enhance the government’s credibility.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2019 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Ann Carlos, Anne Murphy, Patrick Wallis, and the two anonymous referees for their invaluable comments and suggestions in the preparation of this article. The errors that remain are, of course, my own responsibility.

References

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