At the start of the eighteenth century Louis XIV needed to remit huge sums of money abroad to support his armies during the War of the Spanish Succession. This book explains how international bankers moved French money across Europe, and how the foreign exchange system was so overloaded by the demands of war that a massive banking crash resulted.

Autorentext

Guy Rowlands is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of St Andrews, and has taught at Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Durham. A prize-winning author of books on French military and financial history, he has received several research fellowships from the British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Inhalt
Introduction PART I: FRANCE, FOREIGN EXCHANGE AND THE LOGISTICS OF INTERNATIONAL REMITTING 1. The French Monarchy and the Foreign Exchange System in the Era of Louis XIV 2. The Logistical Geography of French Remitting 3. The Price of Foreign Exchange PART II: THE ROAD TO RUIN: FRENCH REMITTANCE BANKING IN THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 4. The Gathering Storm: The Development of a Remittance System, 1700-06 5. Overloading Atlas: Samuel Bernard and the Crisis of French Banking Conclusion