Commercial crises (1863/1873)

Abstract

The symptoms that precede crises are utterly undistinguishable from the signs of great prosperity; ventures and speculations of all sorts proliferate; the price of products, the value of land and houses rise; the demand for labor increases and wage rates augment, interest on the contrary diminishes. Add to that a gullible public – whose doubts vanish at the sight of the first successful undertaking – and a taste for gambling, which spreads as prices continue to rise and as the hope of becoming rich in a short time takes hold of people's imagination. Finally, increasing luxury leads to excess spending, fueled less by greater income than by the higher value of capital estimated at market prices.

Citation

Juglar Translated by Cécile Dangel-Hagnauer, C. (2010), "Commercial crises (1863/1873)", Biddle, J.E. and Emmett, R.B. (Ed.) A Research Annual (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 28 Part 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 115-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0743-4154(2010)000028A008