This work aims to show how credit markets functioned in Paris - through the agency of notaries - during a critical period of French history. It challenges the usual assumption that organized financial markets did not emerge outside of England and the Netherlands until the 19th century.

AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction1. The Institutions of Credit Markets2. From Notarial Archives to Credit3. Stagnation and Decline, 1660-17154. The Crisis of Public Finance and the Law Affair, 1712-265. An Explosion of Private Borrowing, 1726-896. Overcoming Asymetric Information in Financial Markets7. Notaries, Banking, and the Expansion of Credit in Old-Regime Paris8. Micro-Economics and Macro-Politics: Credit and Inflation during the French Revolution9. The Long-Term Financial Consequences of the Revolution10. Institutions and Information after the Revolution11. The Rise of the Credit FoncierConclusionAppendixesArchival SourcesBibliographyIndex