Premodern Financial Systems: A Historical Comparative sStudy describes
(in quantitative terms whenever possible) the financial superstructure,
such as the method of financing the government, and links it to the
essential characteristics of the infrastructure of nearly a dozen
societies ranging from Athens in the late fifth century BC to the United
Provinces in the mid-seventeenth century. The main features of the
financial superstructures discussed are the monetary system, the types
of financial instruments and institutions, interest rates, and the
methods of financing agriculture, non-agricultural business, households,
foreign trade, and government. Aspects of the infrastructures covered
include population, urbanization, prices, national output, wealth, and
their sectoral and size distribution.