1. Introduction D'Maris Coffman and Larry Neal; 2. Could the crown credibly commit to respecting its charters? England, 1558–1640 Ron Harris; 3. Contingent commitment: the development of English marine insurance in the context of New Institutional Economics, 1577–1720 Adrian Leonard; 4. Credibility, transparency, accountability and the public credit under the Long Parliament and Commonwealth, 1643–53 D'Maris Coffman; 5. Jurisdictional controversy and the credibility of common law Julia Rudolph; 6. The importance of not defaulting: the significance of the election of 1710 James Macdonald; 7. Financing and refinancing the War of the Spanish Succession, then refinancing the South Sea Company Ann M. Carlos, Erin K. Fletcher, Larry Neal and Kirsten Wandschneider; 8. Sovereign debts, political structure, and institutional commitments in Italy, 1350–1700 Luciano Pezzolo; 9. Bounded leviathan: fiscal constraints and financial development in the Early Modern Hispanic world Alejandra Irigoin and Regina Grafe; 10. Court capitalism, illicit markets, and political legitimacy in eighteenth century France: the example of the salt and tobacco monopolies Michael Kwass; 11. Institutions, deficits, and wars: the determinants of British government borrowing costs from the end of the seventeenth century to 1850 Nathan Sussman and Yishay Yafeh; Index.

'Credible commitment is fundamental to finance. This volume of excellent essays by financial historians explores the salient institutional theories about the development of credible commitment. In doing so, it illuminates a watershed period in the emergence of the modern economy.' William N. Goetzmann, Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies, and Director, International Center for Finance, Yale University