Choosing a legal framework for Spanish stock markets, 1800-1936

Abstract

The paper analyses the legal transfer of formal rules regulating stock markets in Spain between 1800 and 1936. We argue that the transfer of French legislation in the 1830s provoked a “transplant effect”, which generated serious distortions in Spanish financial markets. As a result, Spain developed a unique system in which official French style stock markets coexisted with Anglo-Saxon style free markets and small traditional markets, reminiscent of the ancien regime. This unique schism of systems reflects the result of multiple natural experiments whereby each region constituted its own stock market system. Diverse economic scenarios and path-dependence processes determined different institutional settings. We find that the unparalleled Spanish system was the result of lacking central power, persistence of institutional inertia, and the diversity of Spain´s geographical economy.