Synopses & Reviews
An overview of the role of institutions and organisations in the development of corporate finance.
Review
"A History of Corporate Finance is a solid contribution to scholarship that should gain the interest of historians, lawyers, economists, and business persons. Its unusual combination of scope, clarity, and brevity, combined with its reasonable price, may induce professors to make it required reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate cources in economic and business history, or in management education courses....an outstanding study that will deservedly gain a wide audience..." H-Net Book Reviews"A History of Corporate Finance by Baskin and Miranti provides a panoramic account of the evolution of financial organizations and practices from ancient time through the present. It also compares these organizations and practices with the assumptions and conclusions of contemporary financial theories. It is must reading for both history buffs and for students, scholars, and practitioners of financial theory." Harry Markowitz, 1990 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics"Business corporations, once rare, have become the dominant organization of the modern economy. The corporation as we know it owes its existence to a long history of financial innovations--in institutions, markets, and instruments (securities). This is the first in-depth history to tell us how it all happened, from the merchants and bankers of medieval and Renaissance Italy to today's corporate managers and wizards of Wall Street. Students of business, economics, finance, law, and history will learn much from it." Richard Sylla, New York University"The work embodied in A History of Corporate Finance is a brilliant combination of theoretical and historical analysis. Given the path dependency of the structure of financial institutions, the book will become required reading for anyone interested in the evolution and development of business finance over the past five hundred years or, for that matter, anyone interested in understanding today's financial markets." Lance E. Davis, California Institute of Technology"...this is an outstanding book." Book Reviews"...immeasurable value as a survey of business and financial history." Canadian Business Law Journal
Table of Contents
Preface; 1. History and the modern theory of finance; 2. Medieval and Renaissance origins; 3. Corporate finance in an age of global exploration: trading companies and oceanic discovery, 1450 1720; 4. The emergence of public markets for investment securities, 1688 1815; 5. Finance in an age of canals and railroads, 1775 1900; 6. Common stock finance and the rise of managerial capitalism, 1900 1940; 7. The financing of center firms, 1940 1973; 8. Conglomerates and leveraged buy-out partnerships; Appendix one: Finance and informational asymmetries in the ancient world; Appendix two: International patterns of corporate governance; Epilogue.