Synopses & Reviews
At the start of the eighteenth century Louis XIV needed to remit huge sums of money abroad to support his armies during the War of the Spanish Succession. For this essential task the French government turned to the services of a number of leading international bankers, men who could provide foreign exchange on a vast scale through a multitude of European financial centres. However, the demand for foreign exchange was unprecedented and the remittance system was utterly opaque, with government ministers ignorant of its workings and almost impotent before its power. As a consequence, the bankers' highly secretive activities proved ruinously expensive to the French state. This book explains how the bankers moved French money across much of Europe for Louis XIV, how the foreign exchange system was overloaded, and why the demands of war led in 1709 to a massive banking crash the French state could not prevent.
Synopsis
At the start of the eighteenth century Louis XIV needed to remit huge sums of money abroad to support his armies during the War of the Spanish Succession. This book explains how international bankers moved French money across Europe, and how the foreign exchange system was so overloaded by the demands of war that a massive banking crash resulted.
About the Author
Guy Rowlands is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of St Andrews, and has taught at Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Durham. A prize-winning author of books on French military and financial history, he has received several research fellowships from the British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I: FRANCE, FOREIGN EXCHANGE AND THE LOGISTICS OF INTERNATIONAL REMITTING
1. The French Monarchy and the Foreign Exchange System in the Era of Louis XIV
2. The Logistical Geography of French Remitting
3. The Price of Foreign Exchange
PART II: THE ROAD TO RUIN: FRENCH REMITTANCE BANKING IN THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
4. The Gathering Storm: The Development of a Remittance System, 1700-06
5. Overloading Atlas: Samuel Bernard and the Crisis of French Banking
Conclusion