Informations du cours

This course explores the relationship between power and trust in shaping global financial capitalism across a broad historical span, from the expansion of international commercial finance in the medieval period to the emergence of modern global sovereign debt markets in the nineteenth century. It brings into dialogue approaches that emphasize power --particularly Marxist and dependency perspectives-- and approaches that emphasize trust, especially neoclassical and new institutional approaches to economic history. Rather than treating these traditions as mutually exclusive, the course uses them as complementary perspectives for understanding complex historical processes. We will examine different historical epochs to understand how the relationship between power, trust, and global financial capitalism evolved over the long term.

We begin with the institutions that emerged at the origins of capitalism to establish trust in long-distance commercial finance during the Mediterranean commercial revolution (11th–15th centuries). Next, we study the interplay between sovereign debt, credibility, and default during the height of Spain’s imperial power under Philip II (1556–1598), focusing particularly on the challenges of sovereign borrowing in the absence of a third-party enforcement mechanism. Our attention then shifts to England after the Glorious Revolution (1688) to examine whether secure property rights contributed to the development of efficient capital markets. We subsequently address the relationship between the slave trade and capital accumulation within the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Atlantic economy, investigating whether the slave trade contributed to European growth at the expense of Africa’s development. We also explore colonialism and the “drain of wealth” through the case of British India under the rule of the East India Company (1757–1858), examining debates about its contribution to the English Industrial Revolution and India’s impoverishment. Finally, we turn to Latin America and the emergence of modern global sovereign debt markets. We examine the financial crisis of 1825 and the region’s recurrent sovereign defaults during the long nineteenth century to understand the roles of information asymmetries, international liquidity, financial intermediaries, and creditor power.

By covering these topics chronologically and across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the course aims to provide a comparative historical understanding of the interplay between power, trust, and global financial capitalism.