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Scientific article
Open access
English

The making of a national currency: Spatial transaction costs and money market integration in Spain (1825–1874)

Published inThe Journal of Economic History, vol. 79, no. 4
Publication date2019
Abstract

This article analyzes the integration of the Spanish money market in the nineteenth century. We use a Band-Threshold Autoregression model of prices of bills-of-exchange in ten cities to measure market convergence and efficiency in 1825–1875. While price gaps generally decreased during the period, progress in efficiency was limited to a small group of cities. We suggest that convergence was associated to the reduction in transaction costs, which started well before the railways through improvements in roads and postal services. By contrast, the heterogeneous behavior of efficiency might be associated to economic geography changes and their effects on monetary leadership.

Keywords
  • Bills of Exchange
  • Financial Development
  • Money Market Convergence
  • Money Market Efficiency
  • Money Market Integration
  • Spanish National Currency
  • Specie-Point Mechanism
  • Transaction Costs
Citation (ISO format)
NOGUES-MARCO, Pilar, HERRANZ-LONCÁN, Alfonso, ASLANIDIS, Nektarios. The making of a national currency: Spatial transaction costs and money market integration in Spain (1825–1874). In: The Journal of Economic History, 2019, vol. 79, n° 4. doi: 10.1017/S0022050719000561
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal0022-0507
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341downloads

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