A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots of DemocracyMacmillan, 15/01/2003 - 564 páginas Nowadays, the idea that the way a country borrows its money is connected to what kind of government it has comes as a surprise to most people. But in the eighteenth century it was commonly accepted that public debt and political liberty were intimately related. In A Free Nation Deep in Debt, James Macdonald explores the connection between public debt and democracy in the broadest possible terms. He starts with some fundamental questions: Why do governments borrow? How do we explain the existence of democratic institutions in the ancient world? Why did bond markets come into existence, and why did this occur in Europe and not elsewhere? Macdonald finds the answers to these questions in a sweeping history that begins in biblical times, focuses on the key period of the eighteenth century, and continues down to the present. He ranges the world, from Mesopotamia to China to France to the United States, and finds evidence for the marriage of democracy and public credit from its earliest glimmerings to its swan song in the bond drives of World War II. Today the two are, it seems, divorced--but understanding their hundreds of years of cohabitation is crucial to appreciating the democracy that we now take for granted. |
Índice
THE FINANCIAL ROOTS | 3 |
TRIBES AND EMPIRES | 10 |
The Return of the CityState | 67 |
La Superba | 77 |
The Twilight of Repayable Taxes | 84 |
San Giorgio | 94 |
Selfish Citizens | 100 |
The Treasure of the Indies | 115 |
The Dilemma | 239 |
The Limits of Absolutism | 255 |
Aristocratic Revolution | 266 |
REVOLUTION | 272 |
The First and Second American Revolutions | 289 |
Enemies of the People | 307 |
The Elephant and the Whale | 334 |
BOURGEOIS CENTURY | 347 |
Antwerp and Lyons | 122 |
RESISTANCE TO THE HEGEMON | 148 |
THE CHIMERA | 179 |
Postbellum Depression | 185 |
The Bubble | 205 |
THE DILEMMA | 221 |
The Ruling Class | 227 |
NATIONS AT ARMS | 400 |
THE END OF THE AFFAIR | 465 |
Glossary | 483 |
Bibliography | 523 |
Acknowledgments | 545 |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots of Democracy James Macdonald Pré-visualização limitada - 2006 |
A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots of Democracy James Macdonald Pré-visualização limitada - 2006 |
A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots of Democracy James Macdonald Pré-visualização indisponível - 2003 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
American amount ancien régime ancient annuities assets assignats Bank of England bankruptcy Banque Royale bonds Britain British budget Cambridge capital century citizens coins colonies Comune cost creditors currency default denarius direct taxes ducats Dutch Dutch Republic empire Europe exchange figures fiscal forced France French fund Genoa Genoese Germany gold grams of silver Habsburg holders income increase inflation interest rates investment investors issue Italy kings land less loans London long-term debt medieval ment merchants military million ducats million livres Mississippi Company monarchy monetary Napoleonic Napoleonic Wars national debt paid paper money Paris Parliament payments political population postwar public borrowing public credit public debt public finance quoted raised reduced regime rentes rentiers repayment republics result revenues Revolution Roman royal shares short-term debt South Sea Company Spain taxation tion trade treasury Venetian Venice World yield
Referências a este livro
Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development Hilton L. Root Pré-visualização limitada - 2006 |
Before the Deluge: Public Debt, Inequality, and the Intellectual Origins of ... Michael Sonenscher Pré-visualização limitada - 2009 |