Industrialization, financial development and money supply: Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century

Authors

  • Pere Pascual Domènech
  • Carles Sudrià Triay

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1698-6989(08)70169-3

Keywords:

Industrialisation, Money supply, Prices, Interest rate, Spain, 19th Century, E41, E42, N13, N23

Abstract

The article deals with the need, inherent in any process of industrialization, to increase money supply in order to avoid deflationary tensions. We examine the case of a major financial and commercial centre: Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century. The paper specifies the volume of different types of fiat money in circulation (bank notes, “validated” cheques, internal pay orders, short-term bonds…) and their characteristics as means of payment. The aim of the study is to show that, in a context of “free banking” without legal tender of the paper money, there was an automatic process towards a balance between supply and demand for money and that any possible oversupply was eliminated through a “crowding out” effect. In such systems, money-supply growth seems have not significant effects on prices, but instead, sudden contractions of money supply did have intense upward impacts on interest rate.

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How to Cite

Pascual Domènech, P., & Sudrià Triay, C. (2019). Industrialization, financial development and money supply: Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century. Investigaciones De Historia Económica, 4(12), 45–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1698-6989(08)70169-3

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