Stock market indices are today a vital and daily tool for both economists and actors in the financial world. The multiplication and the very importance given to these indices raise the question of their accuracy and of the reliability of the methods that are used to construct them. We begin an...

This paper aims at giving an explanation of the changes in the number of bankruptcies during the second part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. We wonder in particular whether changes in bankruptcy law, which are substantial during the period, suffice to explain the rise in the...

We analyze a new blue chips (large caps) stock index for France from 1854 to 1998. We detail its methodology and show that it differs profoundly from earlier indices, and that it is more consistent with the French financial and economic history. We suggest this result casts some doubt on many...

Ce papier constitue le septième chapitre de l'Histoire du marché financier français au 19 ème siècle (à paraître en janvier 2007, publications de la Sorbonne). Dans ce chapitre, nous étudions les transformations profondes qui touchent le système bancaire au milieu du 19 ème siècle et...

This paper is the eleventh chapter of a book forthcoming in January 2007 under the title Histoire du marché financier français au 19 ème siècle (a history of the French capital market in the 19th century). He discusses the macroeconomics of the great depression of the late 19th century from...

Ce papier constitue le premier chapitre de l'Histoire du marché financier français au 19 ème siècle (à paraître en janvier 2007, publications de la Sorbonne). Dans ce chapitre, nous cherchons à montrer la diversité des éléments constituant le système financier au début du XIX ème...

Certaines statistiques sont développées dans un mouvement cohérent qui inclut à la fois objectifs de gestion administrative, projet politique et projet intellectuel. Ce fut le cas en particulier de la statistique de la justice criminelle qui se développa en France dès les années 1820 et...

This paper is chapter 13 of a book forthcoming in January 2007 under the title Histoire du marché financier français au 19 ème siècle (a history of the French capital market in the 19th century). In this chapter, we discuss the changes in the supply of securities on the French capital market...

In this paper, we try to measure the impact of the changes in French bankruptcy law in the 19th century focusing on the behaviour of economic agents as users of bankruptcy law for the sake of finding the best solution to their economic problems. Debtors used bankruptcy law in order to minimize...

Cet article étudie l'application de la législation sur les faillites en France au XIXème siècle. Il utilise deux sources : la statistique annuelle des faillites mise en place à partir de 1840 par le Ministère de la Justice et les dossiers individuels de faillite conservés par les archives...