State, Capital, and Markets: Global History of Modern Finance from the Renaissance to Bretton…

Catalog description

What is finance? Where does it come from and why do we need it? Over the course of term, you'll gain a rigorous understanding of the origins of our financial system from the birth of modern banking in Renaissance Italy to the rise of Central Banking in the 18th and 19th centuries. You will learn how different actors - from private entrepreneurs to Kings to nation states built the machinery that directs money, credit, and capital around the globe. We will then go on to look at the spread of the modern corporations and, eventually, public trading of securities in stock exchanges and other securities markets. By taking a historical view, will understand why the financial system came to be shaped the way it is. Some institutions arose as a solution to practical challenges of long distance trade, others as a result of wartime contingency or political contests. For many students, this course will be directly useful to your professional career. In the business, NGO, and policy worlds, analysts often make macro-economic predictions or political diagnoses based on precedent, but do so with only a hazy understanding of the long history of modern financial institutions. Present-day debates around the root causes of inflation or financial panics imply a theory of what sparked similar incidents in the past. Being able to speak intelligently about the origins of banking, the Great Depression, or the advent of limited liability will allow you to analyze present-day questions of political economy with greater nuance and erudition. This will give you a leg up in job interviews, client presentations, or simply in your personal civic engagement.