Richard Sylla
Biographic Data
| ID | 1052256 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Sylla |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Sylla |
| SIGNATURE | SYLLA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 212 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1967 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures and Industrial Policy
Hamilton’s 1791 state paper on manufactures is a forward-looking argument for US industrialization supported by public policies designed to encourage it. Conventional wisdom circa 1790, along with static considerations of comparative advantage indicated that the United States should stick to farming, export its agricultural surpluses, and import European manufactures. Mercantilist trade policies of the major European empires, however, were barrie…
Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic. By Christopher W. Shaw
Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic. By Christopher W. Shaw Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic. By Christopher W. Shaw. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. v + 410 pp. Notes, index. $30.00) Richard Sylla Richard Sylla New York University, New York, NY, USA Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scho…
Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles by William Quinn and John D. Turner
As financial crises became more frequent during recent decades, so also have books about them, as well as about crises that occurred centuries earlier. These studies tend to come in three styles: (1) narratives of one or more crises, usually by historians and journalists; (2) financial-economic-heuristic models of the typical patterns or essential stages of crises, as illustrated by historical examples, often adduced by financial economists with …
From exceptional to normal: Changes in the structure of US banking since 1920
A century ago the US commercial banking system was exceptional in two ways. It was by good measure the largest commercial banking system of any country. And it was different from the commercial banking systems of other leading countries in having tens of thousands of independent banks with very few branches rather than the more typical pattern of a far smaller number of banks with many branches. Today, a century later, the US system is more norma…
Calculated Values: Finance, Politics, and the Quantitative Age
Deringer argues that our modern quantitative age characterized by facts, figures, and calculations began in England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It was well established in Great Britain by the late eighteenth century. Before 1688, the use of data and calculations was marginal; it had little impact on thinking about anything. A century later, the authority of numbers and calculations became an accepted feature of discussions about almost…
The American Corporation
The United States from its earliest years led the world in making the corporate form of business organization widely available to entrepreneurs. Starting in the 1790s, corporations became key institutions of the American economy, contributing greatly to its remarkable growth. This essay reviews the evolution of corporations across several eras of the country's history. The most recent era is marked by a shift away from a stakeholder view of corpo…
Corporation formation in the antebellum United States in comparative context
Between 1790 and 1860, US state governments chartered 22,419 businesses, with minimum authorised capital totalling $4.58 billion, by special statute. The US, in both total and per capita terms, had considerably more corporations and authorised corporate capital than the UK, France or Prussia did over that same span. Differences in incorporation and capitalisation rates between nations were largely a function of differences in laws and politics bu…
Every man a speculator: A history of Wall Street in American life, by Steve Fraser
Every man a speculator: a history of Wall Street in American life, by Steve Fraser." Labor History, 50(2), pp. 225–226
Alexander Hamilton, Central Banker: Crisis Management during the U.S. Financial Panic of 1792
Most scholars know little about the panic of 1792, America's first financial market crash, during which securities prices dropped nearly 25 percent in two weeks. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton adroitly intervened to stem the crisis, minimizing its effect on the nascent nation's fragile economic and political systems. U.S. policymakers soon forgot the crisis-management techniques Hamilton invented but failed to codify. Many of them were lat…
Political Economy of Financial Development: Canada and the United States in the Mirror of the Other, 1790–1840
A meeting of the Business History Conference in Toronto with “The Political Economy of Enterprise” as its theme provides an opportunity to consider some historical similarities and differences between the climates of enterprise in Canada and the United States. Because much of my recent work has been on financial development in the United States in the early decades, 1790–1840, I shall focus on that period. During that period, finance, enterprise,…
Financial revolutions and economic growth: Introducing this EEH symposium
Chandler on High Technology Industries from the 1880s to the 1990s: A Comment
Al’s essay here on more than a century’s history of high technology industries and firms is vintage Chandler. My comments on it will focus on three points: Chandler’s global perspective, which is one that too few U.S. business historians have; Chandler’s defense of the large corporation as a fount of continuing innovation in high tech industries against the allegations of others that such Chandlerian corporations are yesterday’s news and no longe…
Emerging financial markets and early US growth
The Global Impact of the Internet: Widening the Economic Gap Between Wealthy and Poor Nations
Does the Internet have the potential to accelerate development in poor nations? Or is it an innovation that will widen the gap between wealthy and poor countries? This paper places the Internet in a framework of major innovations in modern economic history that have contributed to increased global economic inequality. To study whether the Internet has the potential to do the same, we investigate the determinants of Internet diffusion and explore …
The Breakdown of Bretton Woods and the Revival of Global Finance
Financial Systems and Economic Modernization
The most successful economies of modern, and perhaps earlier, economic history appear to have had “financial revolutions” that created innovative financial systems before they became leading economies. This suggests that good financial systems may have played a causal role in economic modernization. I identify the key institutional components of such financial systems. Using the United States and Japan as examples, I discuss how two financial rev…
The New Media Boom in Historical Perspective
The new media technologies that began to assert themselves in the 1990s - the Internet, networked computers, and the other hardware and software that make possible the new media - have captivated both the investment community and the general public like nothing else in the memory of most people alive today. These new information technologies are changing the way we live, work, think, and make our day-to-day decisions. To the surprise of many, inc…
The New Media Boom in Historical Perspective
The new media technologies that began to assert themselves in the 1990s - the Internet, networked computers, and the other hardware and software that make possible the new media - have captivated both the investment community and the general public like nothing else in the memory of most people alive today. These new information technologies are changing the way we live, work, think, and make our day-to-day decisions. To the surprise of many, inc…
Slow Train to Paradise: How Dutch Investment Helped Build American Railroads
Railroad historians have long been aware of Dutch investment in the building of American railroads, but how extensive was that investment? This book reveals for the first time that, because of the frequent failure of railroad companies to meet their debt obligations, several railroads were for a time completely in Dutch control. Though Dutch capitalists initially believed they had discovered a shortcut to El Dorado by buying American railroad sec…
Three Centuries of Finance and Monetary Control in america
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
International Capital Markets and American Economic Growth
Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century
C. Knick Harley, University of Western Ontario Paul R. Gregory, University of Houston William N. Parker, Yale University N.F.R. Crafts, University of Warwick S.J. Leybourne, University of Leeds T.C. Mills, City University Business School Maurice Levy-Leboyer and Michel Lescure, University of Paris, Nanterre Richard Tilly, Universitat Munster Giovanni Federico, Universita di Pisa David Good, University of Minnesota Olga Crisp, University of London…
The progressive era and the political economy of big government∗
In the United States, big government was a child of the Progressive Era. Much recent work in American history, especially that of the “organizational” school, shows that big business played an active, perhaps dominant, role in the Progressive Era push for big government. This work undercuts an older, liberal interpretation emphasizing conflict between business and government. But why big business pushed for big government is still unclear. This p…
U.S. City Finances and the Growth of Government, 1850–1902
In terms of revenues and expenditures, local government was the largest component of the U.S. federal system in 1902. Although it has been conjectured that this was also true during most of the nineteenth century, the evidence to support the conjecture is weak. We present a summary of a large sample of data for individual cities in 1850, 1860, and 1870, and link it to census data for 1880, 1890, and 1902.We study effects of city size and geograph…
Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790–1860
The U.S. Constitution, by taking away the power of the states to issue paper money, removed a major source of flexibility in state public finance. In their search for new sources of revenue and fiscal flexibility, the states discovered that the banks they chartered could fill the gap. Investment earnings and tax revenues derived from banks soon became major elements of state public finance. We discuss the nature of these early business-government…
Federal Policy, Banking Market Structure, and Capital Mobilization in the United States, 1863–1913
The success with which capital funds are mobilized and transferred to industrial and related activities is widely regarded as a critical determinant of both the timing and the pace of industrialization in the modern era. Gerschenkron, for example, has suggested that institutional developments which increased this type of capital mobility played an important role in the varying degrees of industrial progress of nineteenth-century European countrie…
Emerging financial markets and early US growth
Financial Systems and Economic Modernization
The most successful economies of modern, and perhaps earlier, economic history appear to have had “financial revolutions” that created innovative financial systems before they became leading economies. This suggests that good financial systems may have played a causal role in economic modernization. I identify the key institutional components of such financial systems. Using the United States and Japan as examples, I discuss how two financial rev…
Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790–1860
The U.S. Constitution, by taking away the power of the states to issue paper money, removed a major source of flexibility in state public finance. In their search for new sources of revenue and fiscal flexibility, the states discovered that the banks they chartered could fill the gap. Investment earnings and tax revenues derived from banks soon became major elements of state public finance. We discuss the nature of these early business-government…
Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century
C. Knick Harley, University of Western Ontario Paul R. Gregory, University of Houston William N. Parker, Yale University N.F.R. Crafts, University of Warwick S.J. Leybourne, University of Leeds T.C. Mills, City University Business School Maurice Levy-Leboyer and Michel Lescure, University of Paris, Nanterre Richard Tilly, Universitat Munster Giovanni Federico, Universita di Pisa David Good, University of Minnesota Olga Crisp, University of London…
U.S. City Finances and the Growth of Government, 1850–1902
In terms of revenues and expenditures, local government was the largest component of the U.S. federal system in 1902. Although it has been conjectured that this was also true during most of the nineteenth century, the evidence to support the conjecture is weak. We present a summary of a large sample of data for individual cities in 1850, 1860, and 1870, and link it to census data for 1880, 1890, and 1902.We study effects of city size and geograph…
Monetary Innovation in America
Monetary innovation, the development of new forms of money, has not received much systematic study from economic historians. This essay presents a framework for analyzing the determinants of monetary innovation and illustrates the argument by means of a sketch of monetary innovation in America from colonial times to the present
American banking and growth in the nineteenth century: A partial view of the terrain
Financial revolutions and economic growth: Introducing this EEH symposium
Forgotten Men of Money: Private Bankers in Early U.S. History
Historical accounts of banking developments in the pre-1860 period of U.S. history focus almost exclusively on banking institutions chartered by state and federal governments. Private, unincorporated banks, although known to have existed, are generally ignored as either unimportant numerically or not truly commercial banks in terms of their functions. This paper draws on a variety of literary and quantitative evidence to infer that such views are…
The American Corporation
The United States from its earliest years led the world in making the corporate form of business organization widely available to entrepreneurs. Starting in the 1790s, corporations became key institutions of the American economy, contributing greatly to its remarkable growth. This essay reviews the evolution of corporations across several eras of the country's history. The most recent era is marked by a shift away from a stakeholder view of corpo…
Corporation formation in the antebellum United States in comparative context
Between 1790 and 1860, US state governments chartered 22,419 businesses, with minimum authorised capital totalling $4.58 billion, by special statute. The US, in both total and per capita terms, had considerably more corporations and authorised corporate capital than the UK, France or Prussia did over that same span. Differences in incorporation and capitalisation rates between nations were largely a function of differences in laws and politics bu…
Political Economy of Financial Development: Canada and the United States in the Mirror of the Other, 1790–1840
A meeting of the Business History Conference in Toronto with “The Political Economy of Enterprise” as its theme provides an opportunity to consider some historical similarities and differences between the climates of enterprise in Canada and the United States. Because much of my recent work has been on financial development in the United States in the early decades, 1790–1840, I shall focus on that period. During that period, finance, enterprise,…
Slow Train to Paradise: How Dutch Investment Helped Build American Railroads
Railroad historians have long been aware of Dutch investment in the building of American railroads, but how extensive was that investment? This book reveals for the first time that, because of the frequent failure of railroad companies to meet their debt obligations, several railroads were for a time completely in Dutch control. Though Dutch capitalists initially believed they had discovered a shortcut to El Dorado by buying American railroad sec…
Alexander Hamilton, Central Banker: Crisis Management during the U.S. Financial Panic of 1792
Most scholars know little about the panic of 1792, America's first financial market crash, during which securities prices dropped nearly 25 percent in two weeks. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton adroitly intervened to stem the crisis, minimizing its effect on the nascent nation's fragile economic and political systems. U.S. policymakers soon forgot the crisis-management techniques Hamilton invented but failed to codify. Many of them were lat…
Three Centuries of Finance and Monetary Control in america
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The progressive era and the political economy of big government∗
In the United States, big government was a child of the Progressive Era. Much recent work in American history, especially that of the “organizational” school, shows that big business played an active, perhaps dominant, role in the Progressive Era push for big government. This work undercuts an older, liberal interpretation emphasizing conflict between business and government. But why big business pushed for big government is still unclear. This p…
Finance and Capital in the United States, 1850–1900
The connections between financial development and economic growth are drawing increased attention on many fronts. This dissertation studies ways in which the American financial system functioned to aid in the accumulation and mobilization of capital in the second half of the nineteenth century. The evolution of the banking system, by far the dominant nineteenth-century financial intermediary, is emphasized, but the role of Federal government fina…
Finance and Capital in the United States, 1850–1900
The connections between financial development and economic growth are drawing increased attention on many fronts. This dissertation studies ways in which the American financial system functioned to aid in the accumulation and mobilization of capital in the second half of the nineteenth century. The evolution of the banking system, by far the dominant nineteenth-century financial intermediary, is emphasized, but the role of Federal government fina…
Federal Policy, Banking Market Structure, and Capital Mobilization in the United States, 1863–1913
The success with which capital funds are mobilized and transferred to industrial and related activities is widely regarded as a critical determinant of both the timing and the pace of industrialization in the modern era. Gerschenkron, for example, has suggested that institutional developments which increased this type of capital mobility played an important role in the varying degrees of industrial progress of nineteenth-century European countrie…
American banking and growth in the nineteenth century: A partial view of the terrain
British Investment in American Railways, 1834-1898
The Bank of the State of South Carolina: A General and Political History
Economic history “von unten nach oben” and “von oben nach unten”: A reply to Fritz Redlich
The Denigration of Cotton and other Dissertations: A Discussion
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Forgotten Men of Money: Private Bankers in Early U.S. History
Historical accounts of banking developments in the pre-1860 period of U.S. history focus almost exclusively on banking institutions chartered by state and federal governments. Private, unincorporated banks, although known to have existed, are generally ignored as either unimportant numerically or not truly commercial banks in terms of their functions. This paper draws on a variety of literary and quantitative evidence to infer that such views are…
New York City Mutual Savings Banks, 1819-61
Money and Capital Markets in Postbellum America
The Evolution of the American Economy: Growth, Welfare, and Decision Making
Introduction: The Study of Economic Growth, Welfare, and Decision Making. I. FROM COLONIALISM TO NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE (1492-1790). 1. American and the Developing World Economy. 2. Regional Patterns of Colonial Development. 3. Growth and Welfare in the Colonies. 4. Foundations of Economic Independence. II. THE AGRICULTURAL ERA AND EMERGING INDUSTRIALISM (1790-1860). 5. Revolutions in Transportation and Communications. 6. Land Policy, Agricultural…
The Evolution of the American Economy
Monetary Innovation in America
Monetary innovation, the development of new forms of money, has not received much systematic study from economic historians. This essay presents a framework for analyzing the determinants of monetary innovation and illustrates the argument by means of a sketch of monetary innovation in America from colonial times to the present
Economics
Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790–1860
The U.S. Constitution, by taking away the power of the states to issue paper money, removed a major source of flexibility in state public finance. In their search for new sources of revenue and fiscal flexibility, the states discovered that the banks they chartered could fill the gap. Investment earnings and tax revenues derived from banks soon became major elements of state public finance. We discuss the nature of these early business-government…
U.S. City Finances and the Growth of Government, 1850–1902
In terms of revenues and expenditures, local government was the largest component of the U.S. federal system in 1902. Although it has been conjectured that this was also true during most of the nineteenth century, the evidence to support the conjecture is weak. We present a summary of a large sample of data for individual cities in 1850, 1860, and 1870, and link it to census data for 1880, 1890, and 1902.We study effects of city size and geograph…
The progressive era and the political economy of big government∗
In the United States, big government was a child of the Progressive Era. Much recent work in American history, especially that of the “organizational” school, shows that big business played an active, perhaps dominant, role in the Progressive Era push for big government. This work undercuts an older, liberal interpretation emphasizing conflict between business and government. But why big business pushed for big government is still unclear. This p…
Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century
C. Knick Harley, University of Western Ontario Paul R. Gregory, University of Houston William N. Parker, Yale University N.F.R. Crafts, University of Warwick S.J. Leybourne, University of Leeds T.C. Mills, City University Business School Maurice Levy-Leboyer and Michel Lescure, University of Paris, Nanterre Richard Tilly, Universitat Munster Giovanni Federico, Universita di Pisa David Good, University of Minnesota Olga Crisp, University of London…
Three Centuries of Finance and Monetary Control in america
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
International Capital Markets and American Economic Growth
Slow Train to Paradise: How Dutch Investment Helped Build American Railroads
Railroad historians have long been aware of Dutch investment in the building of American railroads, but how extensive was that investment? This book reveals for the first time that, because of the frequent failure of railroad companies to meet their debt obligations, several railroads were for a time completely in Dutch control. Though Dutch capitalists initially believed they had discovered a shortcut to El Dorado by buying American railroad sec…
The New Media Boom in Historical Perspective
The new media technologies that began to assert themselves in the 1990s - the Internet, networked computers, and the other hardware and software that make possible the new media - have captivated both the investment community and the general public like nothing else in the memory of most people alive today. These new information technologies are changing the way we live, work, think, and make our day-to-day decisions. To the surprise of many, inc…
The New Media Boom in Historical Perspective
The new media technologies that began to assert themselves in the 1990s - the Internet, networked computers, and the other hardware and software that make possible the new media - have captivated both the investment community and the general public like nothing else in the memory of most people alive today. These new information technologies are changing the way we live, work, think, and make our day-to-day decisions. To the surprise of many, inc…
The Breakdown of Bretton Woods and the Revival of Global Finance
Financial Systems and Economic Modernization
The most successful economies of modern, and perhaps earlier, economic history appear to have had “financial revolutions” that created innovative financial systems before they became leading economies. This suggests that good financial systems may have played a causal role in economic modernization. I identify the key institutional components of such financial systems. Using the United States and Japan as examples, I discuss how two financial rev…
Economics (34 works) · Political science (23 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (17 works) · History (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Business (11 works) · Finance (11 works) · Finance (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Economic history (9 works)