Poitras (finance, Simon Fraser University) provides an account of the early development of financial economics and presents a foundation for the study of modern financial economics. The book chronicles the development of early financial economics, from the appearance of the first printed commercial arithmetic in 1478 to the publication of The Wealth of Nations in 1776. The origins of the subject are traced back to the commercial arithmetic of the Renaissance reckoning schools. The contributions of de Moivre, Halley, and Stevin are also discussed. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Geoffrey Poitras is Professor of Finance at Simon Fraser Unviversity, Canada. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

List of Figures	ix
List of Tables	x
1. Introduction	1
Overview
Scope of the Investigation
Some Introductory Pedagogy
Outline of the Presentation
Beware of Ethno-Centrism and Other Sources of Bias?
Notes
2. History of Commerce and Finance	22
Developments Prior to 1478
The Reckoning Schools
Social Attitudes Toward Business
The Census
The Venetian Prestiti
Societas and the Triple Contract
The Bill of Exchange
Lombards, Jews and Pawnbroking
The Emergence of the Early Bourses
The Evolution of Financial Securities
Life Annuities and Tontines
Joint Stock Companies
Private Credit Markets in the 18th Century
Other 18th Century Contributions
Appendix Selected Life Annuity Price Series and Issue Sizes
Notes
3. The Scholastic Analysis of Usury and Other Subjects	74
Scholastics and Merchants
Ancient Doctrines on Interest Payments
Scholastic Economics
Types of Law
Doctrine on Usury
Doctrine on Exchange and Census
Doctrine on Gambling and Risk
The Evolution of Scholastic Doctrine
Opinion on the Scholastic Usury Doctrine in the 18th Century
Keynes on Usury
Appendix 'Merchant of Venice', William Shakespeare (1600)
Notes
4. The Evolution of Commercial Arithmetic	113
Commercial Arithmetic and Commercial Education
The Treviso Arithmetic
Pacioli and the Summa
Plagiarism
Chuquet and the Triparty
Progress of Commercial Arithmetic
Simon Stevin and Leiden
Commercial Arithmetic and the Ready Reckoner
Commercial Arithmetic, Accounting and Merchant Education
18th Century Theoretical Developments
Appendix Selected Compound Interest Tables
Notes
5. Simple Interest and Compound Interest	143
Basic Interest Concepts
Methods of Fixed Income Valuation
Origins of Some Mathematical Tools
Simple Interest in Partnerships
Compound Interest
The Development of Commercial Arithmetic
The Forgotten Work of Richard Witt
Malynes on Compound Interest
Compound Interest Calculations in the 18th Century
Reflections on the Historical Development of Compound Interest
Appendix Life Annuity and Other Tables from Price (1772)
Notes
6. The Valuation of Life Annuities	187
Origins of Life Annuities
The Genesis of Modern Contingent Claims Pricing
Graunt and Halley
The Life of Edmond Halley
The Contributions of Abraham de Moivre
Contributions after de Moivre
De Witt's Calculation of Life Annuities
Calculations of Halley and de Moivre
Valuation of Tontines
Bernoulli's Problem
A Note on the Bernoullis
Appendix Excerpts from Valuation of Life Annuities..., de Witt (1671)
Notes
7. Foreign Exchange and the Bill Market	228
The Bill of Exchange
Early Bourses and the Bill Market
Dry Exchange and Fictitious Exchange
Gresham on Foreign Exchange
The Rudiments of Early Mercantilism
Arbitrage in the Bill Market?
Possible Arbitrage Transactions
An Early Example of Technical Analysis?
Negotiable and Inland Bills
Cantillon on Speculation in Bills
Adam Smith and the Bill Market
Appendix Some Common Monetary Units
Notes
8. The Analysis of Joint Stocks	267
The Evolution of Joint Stocks
The Dutch East India Company
The Emergence of Markets for Trading in Shares
Isaac le Maire and the First Market Manipulation in Stocks
Early Stock Trading in London
Brokers and Stockjobbers
The English Coffeehouses
John Law: The Great Projector
The Mississippi Scheme
The South Sea Bubble
Analysis of Trade and Pricing for Joint Stock Companies
Adam Smith on Stockjobbing
Views on Corporate Finance
Appendix Selected Stock Price and Dividend Series
Notes
9. Development of Derivative Securities	335
What are Derivative Securities?
The Earliest Markets
Antwerp, Amsterdam and London
De la Vega on Stock Option Trading in Amsterdam
Houghton on London Option Trading
The South Sea Bubble and Barnard's Act
The Pricing of Futures and Options Contracts
Put-Call Parity Conditions
The Japanese Rice Market
Appendix English Translation of Jeu d'Actions en Hollande, de Pinto (1771)
Notes
10. Manias, Manipulations and Institutional Failures	382
The Modern View of Security Markets
Joseph de la Vega on Market Manipulation
Other Accounts of Market Manipulation
Tulipmania: The Historical Context
Tulipmania: The Modern View
Cantillon on Manias and Manipulation
The Joint Stock Bubbles
Manipulation, Mania or Institutional Failure?
Appendix 'The Bubble', Jonathan Swift (1721)
Notes
11. English Debates over Interest Rates and Public Credit	418
What Interest Rate Theories?
The Mercantilist Contributions
Keynes on Mercantilist Interest Theories
Cantillon and the Loanable Funds Theory
Further Debates on Legal Maximum Interest Rates
Adam Smith and the Financial Revolution
The Sinking Fund Debate
Who was Richard Price?
Opinions on the Sinking Fund
Appendix British and Dutch Interest Rates, 17th-18th Centuries
Notes
12. Maritime Insurance, Life Insurance and Other Subjects	449
Origins of Maritime Insurance
Development of the English Maritime Insurance Market
Lloyd's of London
The Development of Life Insurance
The Contribution of James Dodson
Richard Price, Life Assurance and the Equitable
The Origin of Old Age Pension Plans
The Development of Other Types of Insurance
Appendix The Francis (1853) List of South Sea Bubble Era Assurance Schemes
Notes
13. Some Speculative Conclusions	481
The Origins of Economics
The Origins of Financial Economics
Who are the Founders of Financial Economics?
Some Speculative Conclusions
Notes
Bibliographic Notes	495
References	501
Index	517

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