The book discusses the history of financial centres over the past two centuries taking into account the role of institutional and market organization, regulatory frameworks, and broader contextual political, historical, and economic factors.

• 1: Laure Quennouëlle-Corre: Introduction


• 2: Ranald Michie: The Battle of the Bourses? Competition between Stock Exchanges in the 20th


• 3: Stefano Ugolini: 1. An 'Atypical' Case? The First Emergence of Brussels as an International Financial Centre 1830-1860


• 4: Carlos Marichal: 1. 'Rivalry and Collaboration': Relations between Buenos Aires Merchant Bankers and European Bankers in the Issue of Argentine Government Bonds in the 1880s


• 5: Leonid Borodkin and Gregory Perelman: St. Petersburg Exchange: On the Road to Maturity. Industrial Stock Index, 1897-1914


• 6: Leslie Hannah: 1. London as The Global Market for Corporate Securities before 1914


• 7: Richard Sylla: Wall Street Transitions, 1880-1920: From National to World Financial Centre


• 8: Laure Quennouëlle-Corre: The Decline of Paris as an International Financial Centre 1914-1940


• 9: Ileana Racianu: The Banque de France, The Bank of England and the Stabilization of the Romanian Currency in Late 1920s


• 10: André Straus: An Integrated European Market Without an International Centre: 1945-1962?


• 11: Catherine Schenk: The Re-emergence of Hong Kong as an International Financial Centre in Asia, 1960-1978 : Contested Internationalization

Youssef Cassis is Professor of Economic History, at the European University Institute, Florence. His work mainly focuses on banking and financial history, as well as business history more generally. His numerous publications on the subject include City Bankers, 1890-1914 (1994), Big Business: The European Experience in the Twentieth Century (1997), Capitals of Capital: A History of International Financial Centres, 1780-2005 (2006), and Crises and Opportunities: the Shaping of Modern Finance (2011).
Laure Quennouëlle-Corre teaches economic and financial history at the University of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the history of capital markets especially the Paris Bourse, and the role of financial institutions in the 20th century (the Treasury, the stock markets, and the investment banks). She is particularly involved in oral history and biographical approaches. She has recently published Politique et finance dans l'Europe du XXe siècle. Entretien avec Robert Jablon (with R. Jablon and A. Straus; P.I.E. Peter Lang, Brussels, 2010).