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Baring, Wellington and the Resurrection of French Public Finances Following Waterloo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2014

Kim Oosterlinck ,
Loredana Ureche-Rangau  and
Jacques-Marie Vaslin
Kim Oosterlinck
Affiliation:
Professor, UniversitéLibre de Bruxelles, SBS-EM, Centre Emile Bernheim, 50 avenue F.D. Roosevelt, CP 114/03, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail: koosterl@ulb.ac.be.
Loredana Ureche-Rangau
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Finance, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Faculty of Economics and Business CRIISEA, Pôle Universitaire Cathédrale, 10 placette Lafleur, BP 2716, 80027 Amiens Cedex 1, France. E-mail: loredana.ureche@u-picardie.fr.
Jacques-Marie Vaslin
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Finance, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, IAE School of Management CRIISEA, 10, Placette Lafleur BP 2716, 80027 Amiens Cedex 1, France. E-mail: jacques-marie.vaslin@u-picardie.fr.
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Abstract

Following Waterloo, managing French public finances represented a daunting task as the country had lost a substantial part of its population and territory and had to pay huge amounts as reparations to the victors. Despite this, in just ten years, France managed to issue substantial amounts of debt with a spread, compared to the British consol, falling from more than 400 to 100 basis points. We argue that the Duke of Wellington was key in creating an environment in which Baring had an incentive to lend to France and all actors had an incentive to see French debts reimbursed.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 1072 - 1102
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2014 

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Footnotes

The authors wish to thank the editor, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, three anonymous referees as well as Patrice Baubeau, Stéphanie Collet, Nicholas Dimsdale, Benoit D'Udekem D'Acoz, Marc Flandreau, Georges Gallais-Hamonno, Oscar Gelderblom, Jane Humphries, David Le Bris, Larry Neal, Kris Mitchener, Patrick O'Brien, Kevin O'Rourke, Catherine Pouget, SébastienPouget, Erwan Quéinnec, Angela Redish, Christian Rietsch, Albrecht Ritschl, Angelo Riva, Hugh Rockoff, Marti G. Subrahmanyam, Dick Sylla, Ariane Szafarz, Eugene N. White for comments and suggestions. We also thank participants in seminars at ESCP-Europe, Kedge Business School, Oxford University, Toulouse School of Economics and the Université d'Orléans, and at conferences held by the CEPR and the Economic History Association.

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