Trade Finance in the Late Nineteenth Century
Trade finance was revolutionized at several crucial junctures of the late nineteenth century. Before the 1870s, bill business was only loosely monitored, as fluctuations in the gold price of silver were minimal, being kept in check by France’s bimetallism. France’s decision to ration (1873) and later abolish silver monetization altogether (1876) made this practice untenable. This chapter explains that silver fluctuations were behind the contraction of bill business and the fall of several exchange banks. Only in the 1880s could the tide be reversed, mostly thanks to the introduction of the ‘interest bill’. In this chapter, it is furthermore demonstrated that the financialization of bill finance led to a remarkable development in international finance: the birth of so-called ‘carry trades’ between money markets in Europe and the less liquid world periphery.