Business, Government & the International Economy
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- June 2025
- Article
Integral Outside: The Financial Curb Market, the Electric Telegraph, and the Politics of Pricing in Second Empire France
Financial markets in nineteenth-century France were far more complex than an analysis of the official Bourse or its state-authorized brokers would suggest. Most financial transactions occurred on an illegal yet tacitly tolerated curb market called the coulisse, which played a vital role in expanding market liquidity during the Second Empire while also attracting controversy as a site of complex speculative activity. Existing historiography attributes the 1859 suppression of the Paris coulisse to aggravated competition between state-authorized brokers and coulissiers following the market downturn of 1857–58. Based on police, ministerial, prefectoral, and judicial archives, I present an alternate account that stresses the twin roles of financial innovation and the telecommunications revolution in breaching the limits of the state’s tacit toleration for the coulisse. I emphasize the lesser known coulisse in Marseille, suppressed at the height of a bull market in 1855, to formulate an alternative explanation of the 1859 suppression of its counterpart in Paris. I conclude that the rising importance of the curb markets in both cities reflected the robust, short-term options market developing among coulissiers. Public attention given to the coulisse price lists—distributed via newly opened telegraph lines—challenged the legitimacy of official brokers as authoritative sources of price information and compromised the political interests of the Bonapartist state, which proved decisive in the crackdown.
- June 2025
- Article
Integral Outside: The Financial Curb Market, the Electric Telegraph, and the Politics of Pricing in Second Empire France
Financial markets in nineteenth-century France were far more complex than an analysis of the official Bourse or its state-authorized brokers would suggest. Most financial transactions occurred on an illegal yet tacitly tolerated curb market called the coulisse, which played a vital role in expanding market liquidity during the Second Empire while...
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- May 2025
- Case
The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve
By: Sophus A. Reinert, Mattias Fibiger and Sue Jia- May 2025
- Case
The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve
By: Sophus A. Reinert, Mattias Fibiger and Sue Jia -
- May 2025
- Article
Argentina’s Disinflation: An International and Historical Perspective
By: Rafael Di Tella, Franco Nuñez and Pablo Ottonello- May 2025
- Article
Argentina’s Disinflation: An International and Historical Perspective
By: Rafael Di Tella, Franco Nuñez and Pablo Ottonello
About the Unit
The BGIE Unit conducts research on, and teaches about, the economic, political, social, and legal environment in which business operates. The Unit includes scholars trained in economics, political science, and history; in its work, it draws on perspectives from all three of these disciplines.
The following demonstrates one way of classifying the approaches the Unit takes to learning and teaching.
- The Unit examines the “rules” and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect business in the United States.
- The Unit turns to history to understand the origins of today’s business environment as well as some of the alternatives that have emerged from time to time.
- The Unit examines other countries’ business environments and their historical development.
- The BGIE group is deeply interested in the impact of globalization and the way rules are emerging to govern international economic transactions as globalization proceeds.
Recent Publications
Integral Outside: The Financial Curb Market, the Electric Telegraph, and the Politics of Pricing in Second Empire France
- June 2025 |
- Article |
- Journal of Modern History
Liz Truss and the Thatcher Legacy: Markets and Fiscal Dominance in the United Kingdom
- May 2025 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve
- May 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Argentina’s Disinflation: An International and Historical Perspective
- May 2025 |
- Article |
- Quarterly Review - Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Brazil's Messias? The Lava Jato Corruption Scandal, the Recession, and the Rise of Bolsonaro
- May 2025 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
High Stakes: A Framework for Geopolitical Risk Management
- 2025 |
- Report |
- Faculty Research
Tracking the Short-Run Price Impact of U.S. Tariffs
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.