Banking Policy under the Conditions of Regulatory Divergence: The German Empire and the Formation of the Financial Markets in the Late 19th Century

Abstract

The article questions the previous explanations of the economic policy of the German Empire. On the basis of the divergence in the regulatory regimes of central banks and stock credit banks, it can be shown that the regulation of the financial markets hardly followed a coherent regulatory policy course, but was at best committed to the establishment of a solid money market. This corresponded less to the image of an »intervention state« than to the function of the state as an institutional guarantor of capitalist economic activity.