Review of 'Building the Global Market: A 4000 Year History of Derivatives' by E J Swan (2000)

University of Queensland Law School Working Paper

6 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2001

See all articles by Paul Ali

Paul Ali

University of Melbourne - Law School

Date Written: October 2001

Abstract

This paper reviews 'Building the Global Market: A 4000 Year History of Derivatives' by E J Swan (published in 2000).

'Building the Global Market' focuses on the use of derivatives in the ancient Middle East (Chapter 2), ancient Greece and Rome (Chapter 3), Bruges and the Italian city states during the Middle Ages (Chapters 4 and 5), Antwerp during the 16th Century, and Amsterdam and England during the 17th Century (Chapter 6), England during the 18th Century (Chapter 7), and England and America from the 19th Century to the present (Chapters 8 and 9).

This book is a useful starting point for law and finance academics - as well as derivatives practitioners - interested in the antecedents of modern derivatives transactions. It, however, falls short of providing a comprehensive account of the history of derivatives.

Keywords: Derivatives, History

JEL Classification: G15, K22

Suggested Citation

Ali, Paul, Review of 'Building the Global Market: A 4000 Year History of Derivatives' by E J Swan (2000) (October 2001). University of Queensland Law School Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=288719 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.288719

Paul Ali (Contact Author)

University of Melbourne - Law School ( email )

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