A Policy Framework for the Bank of Amsterdam, 1736-1791

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Texas Christian University; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Atlanta
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050719000305
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 736-772
• 关键词: crisis; HISTORY; finance

摘要

This article describes and measures how the Bank of Amsterdam supplied a successful fiat money in a world of specie by offering the unlimited repo of large coins at a near-zero rate. Our data from 1736 to 1791 finds that such liberal access led to volatile loan levels and that the Bank responded with sterilization by means of open market operations. In this way, the Bank held its money stock at a roughly constant level and helped stabilize its value. Profit was another part of the Bank's policy framework, and the pursuit of seigniorage eventually compromised stabilization.