Looking for resources

Miscellaneous History
1

Hallo all, I am looking for good, authoritative, resources, preferably with an Austrian outlook or concentrating on topics of our interest. Online availability would be of course great. Right now it’s two themes:

  • history of Ancient Egypt, in particular its granaries and their use as banks of a sort. How did they work; was there any inflation, what was the impact of government of those times?

  • medieval banking history of the Western Europe, particularly Italy, where banking in modern form is said to originate.

Mentioned offhandedly in many books, few seem to devote them more than a sentence or two. A solid article would be sufficient.

Thanks!

2

http://mises.org/daily/3346#part1

3

I suggest for this, though it doesn’t exactly give what you desire: Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean by Charles Freeman.

4

I think Rothbard’s History of Economic Thought has some history of Western Europe banking. It certainly makes reference to the de Medici’s.

5

Thanks for the ideas.

  • http://mises.org/daily/3346#part1 - Forty Centuries of Price Controls is a good book, but that section is sadly not enough
  • “Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean” by Charles Freeman - don’t have access to it and can’t find it online… yet.
  • Rothbard’s “History of Economic Thought” does really mention a few things in this direction, but it would require to read pretty much the whole book, or at least a large part of it to see if the material is there. Perhaps later.

Anybody knows of any more ideas, perhaps more approachable?

Or if not on this, how about Ancient and Medieval China, that is frequently mentioned to have invented many banking techniques before the West thought of it?Are any resources known there?

6

As for China, found one: Gordon Tullock. “Paper money - a cycle in Cathay” (pdf), The Economic History Review. Resources on the rest are still sought.

7

Looking for another one:

One of the beginnings of fractional reserve banking were the English goldsmiths, who issued more warehouse receipts than they had gold from their clients. Interestingly, one source also claims, that they eventually went bankrupt, because the kings chose not to pay their debts.

Does anybody know of a better resource on their bankruptcy?

8

If I recall correctly, there is some information about medieval banking, especially Italy, in DeSoto’s Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles.

9

For information on ancient markets, I would contact sean gabb of the libertarian alliance.

10

Big thanks, that should help out with several topics at once! (And if there’s anything missing, I’ll try that Sean Gabb, so thanks for that as well!) That brings me closer to my goal, so kudos to both of you.

11

My pleasure!

12

I don’t know if you’re still looking, but you might take a look at Money and Man by Elgin Groseclose for medieval banking history.

13

The more the merrier! The table of contents looks already interesting, I’ve added it to my resource list and will hopefully come to it sometime soon.

Thanks!