Spanish Money and Banking: A History

Spanish Money and Banking provides new insights into recent advances in financial and monetary history and theory, and demonstrates the significance of Spain to modern banking, monetary, and development theory. Using a comparative approach, it brings together a substantial amount of research carried out in Spain and abroad. It also contributes to scholarly debates on aspects of monetary and banking history, topics such as free vs regulated banking, metallic vs fiduciary money, specialized vs universal banking, bank- vs market-led finance, banking repression vs liberalization, the contribution of banking and money to growth, and the role of the state in financial and economic development. It also shows how financial and monetary mismanagement contributed to the decline of Spain in the early modern era, and how the development of the banking sector later on contributed to the first stirrings of development in modern Spain, especially in the 20th century, throwing light as well on the causes of the recent European crisis and the part Spain played in it.