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Money, States, and Empire: Financial Integration and Institutional Change in Central Europe, 1400–1520

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2011

David Chilosi  and
Oliver Volckart
David Chilosi*
Affiliation:
Research Officer Economic History Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom. E-mail: d.chilosi@lse.ac.uk.
Oliver Volckart*
Affiliation:
Reader Economic History Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom. E-mail: o.j.volckart@lse.ac.uk.
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Abstract

By analyzing a newly compiled database of exchange rates, this article finds that in Central Europe money markets integrated cyclically during the fifteenth century. The cycles were associated with monetary debasements. Long-distance financial integration progressed in connection with the rise of the territorial state, facilitated by the synergy between princes and emperor, which helped to avoid coordination failures. For Central Europe, theories of state formation and market integration should therefore take interstate actors into account.

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ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , 13 September 2011 , pp. 762 - 791
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Copyright © The Economic History Association 2011

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