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RR 2011/317 Handbook of World Exchange Rates, 1590-1914 Markus A. Denzel Ashgate Farnham and Burlington, VT 2010 clii+ 766 pp. ISBN 978 0 7546 0356 6 £85 $165
Keywords Exchange rates, History
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121111168541
A crucial stage in the development of the world economy emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with a global cashless payment system. This had its base in Europe, first in Italy, then in the developing economies of the north-west, with Amsterdam, then London, as the central financial market. The mutual quotation of exchange rates marks the integration of a country or city into a worldwide network of areas of significant economic activity. This handbook presents a tabulation of the exchange rates in all these financial markets up to the First World War and thus makes possible a simple conversion between the major world currencies at any year within this period. All five continents are covered though now, nearly a century on from the end date of 1914, some of the places seem rather quaint, for example the Habsburg Monarchy, the Russian Empire, the Straits Settlement, and Cape Colony, but these are often just earlier incarnations of present sovereign countries. Indeed, although the data is arranged by 33 countries, this is misleading as it is better to talk of money exchanges since many "countries" had several exchanges. Trading continues regardless of national nomenclature or the configuration of states. This illustrates the need for historians to be aware of the importance of financial centres to a country's history and, in part, is a justification for this book.
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