Interest Rates

Paper Summary:

Examines several issues related to the history of simple & compound interest rates. Centers on loans, credit. Defines terms. Overview of history of interest rates; fluctations; government economic policy decisions; supply & demand for money. Summary of averages of prime short-term rates (19th & 20th Centuries). Suggests that interest rates are tied to non-economic as well as economic factors.

From the Paper:

"Introduction


Sidney Homer (1963), in his seminal history of interest rates, argues that such a history of often dramatic interest rate fluctuations provides an excellent summary of the success of some communities and the failures of others to develop effective commercial ethics and laws and suitable monetary and fiscal techniques and policies. While "credit" is considered a modern device (or vice), a brief survey of financial history will demonstrate that credit was in general use in ancient and in medieval times, antedating industry, banking and even coinage. It is the purpose of this brief report to examine selected issues related to the history of simple and compound interest rates, specifically on loans, and to consider periods when high rates were commonplace in their historical context."

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