The purpose of this continuing research is to produce a quantitative economic history of the emergence and perfection of efficient and integrated international capital markets during the period 1811-1914. This study will also involve developing a data base consisting of the share price lists published regularly for the stock exchanges of London, Amsterdam, Paris, and New York. The research results will provide new insights into the disruptions and subsequent adjustments in the pricing of internationally-traded financial assets that are created by the addition of new markets and traders, changes in government regulations of existing markets, changes in institutional design of stock markets, or advances in the technology of communications linking the various financial markets. This research is important because it will provide a quantitative standard of market integration and efficiency that can be used to calibrate measures of financial market operation in other periods. Further, the nineteenth century is an especially interesting period for establishing such measures for evaluating current developments in international financial markets. This period is characterized by the spread of financial capitalism to variety of countries with very different legal and institutional histories, and by the integration of the corresponding secondary markets in transferable securities through the first telecommunications revolution. Also, this period ends with rise of increasing regulation of stock exchanges in the form of both self-regulation and state regulation.
