The Decline of a Great Financial Intermediary: Notaries in France, 1851–1934

Philip Hoffman, Gilles Postel-Vinay and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
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Philip Hoffman: CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
Gilles Postel-Vinay: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Jean-Laurent Rosenthal: CALTECH - California Institute of Technology

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Abstract: Via peer-to-peer lending, notaries mobilized immense amounts of capital in France up into the 1930s. They did so despite a thriving stock market, widespread banking with branches, and the existence of an effective lender of last resort. Using detailed evidence on their careers and their businesses, we analyze their training, their successes and failures, how they were regulated, and how they dealt with political and economic crises. What we uncover teaches broader lessons about the misconceptions surrounding modernization, financial development, and the reputational models that economists rely upon to explain informal dealings.

Date: 2025-03
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Published in Christiaan van Bochove; Juliette Levy. Beyond Banks: A Global History of Credit Markets and Intermediation, Springer Nature Switzerland, pp.49-73, 2025, Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, 978-3-031-75818-8. ⟨10.1007/978-3-031-75819-5_2⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-05031238

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-75819-5_2

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