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Alexander Gerschenkron was Harvard’s economic historian in the third quarter of the twentieth century. His early life was dominated by twin experiences of traumatic displacement during the Russian Civil War and Anschluss.
Adding to the usefulness of current-account credit as an indicator of the extent of industrial financing by banks is its growth as opposed to that of domestic bill credit. Until 1895 current- account credit grew at a rate only moderately faster than that of domestic bill credit.
was the establishment of the Crédit Mobilier in France in 1852. Although the French initiative soon foundered, it pioneered the notion of providing long-term bank loans to finance industrial development. This idea was taken up and adapted in Germany and led to the creation of universal banks which provided long-term finance for investment.
The concept of universal banking first gained broader historical currency by association with the theory of relative backwardness and industrialization developed by Alexander Gerschenkron (Gerschenkron [1962]; Sylla and Toniolo [1991]). According to that theory, late industrializing countries faced
Their hypothesis builds on Alexander Gerschenkron's belief that the German great banks "made long-term loans to industry at short-term rates via current account."7 To this tiny shred of evidence they attach their presumption that long-term loans cost more than short-term current account credits.
7 cze 2024 · With this in mind, the Pereire Brothers founded Credit Mobilier. The influence of the Saint Simon doctrine is palpable in Credit Mobilier bylaws. The new bank’s founding documents stated “considering the important services that the establishment of a bank may favour the development of the industry…”
The role of commercial banks has been given a central role in England by Gerschenkron himself and by many others; they have also had a key role in American growth (Davis and Gallman 1978, Lamoreaux 1994). We are agnostic about the relative value of one type of bank relative to another and will focus on the interaction of banks and notarial credit.
