Staff Working Paper No. 845 Eight Centuries of Global Real Interest Rates, R-G, and the ‘Suprasecular’ Decline, 1311–2018 Paul Schmelzing
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CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 CODE OF PRACTICE 2007 Staff Working Paper No. 845 Eight centuries of global real interest rates, R-G, and the ‘suprasecular’ decline, 1311–2018 Paul Schmelzing January 2020 Staff Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. Any views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and so cannot be taken to represent those of the Bank of England or to state Bank of England policy. This paper should therefore not be reported as representing the views of the Bank of England or members of the Monetary Policy Committee, Financial Policy Committee or Prudential Regulation Committee. Staff Working Paper No. 845 Eight centuries of global real interest rates, R-G, and the ‘suprasecular’ decline, 1311–2018 Paul Schmelzing(1)(2)(3) Abstract With recourse to archival, printed primary, and secondary sources, this paper reconstructs global real interest rates on an annual basis going back to the 14th century, covering 78% of advanced economy GDP over time. I show that across successive monetary and fiscal regimes, and a variety of asset classes, real interest rates have not been ‘stable’, and that since the major monetary upheavals of the late middle ages, a trend decline between 0.6–1.6 basis points per annum has prevailed. A gradual increase in real negative-yielding rates in advanced economies over the same horizon is identified, despite important temporary reversals such as the 17th Century Crisis. Against their long-term context, currently depressed sovereign real rates are in fact converging ‘back to historical trend’ — a trend that makes narratives about a ‘secular stagnation’ environment entirely misleading, and suggests that — irrespective of particular monetary and fiscal responses — real rates could soon enter permanently negative territory. I also posit that the return data here reflects a substantial share of ‘non-human wealth’ over time: the resulting R-G series derived from this data show a downward trend over the same timeframe: suggestions about the ‘virtual stability’ of capital returns, and the policy implications advanced by Piketty (2014) are in consequence equally unsubstantiated by the historical record. Key words: Real rate history, financial history, historical R-G, 13th–21st centuries. JEL classification: E40, G12, N10, N20. (1) Harvard University. Email: [email protected] (2) Yale School of Management. Email: [email protected] (3) Bank of England. Email: [email protected] The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the Bank of England or its committees. For useful discussions or comments I thank Michael Bordo, Steve Broadberry, Barry Eichengreen, Niall Ferguson, Gary Gorton, Andy Haldane, Mike Joyce, John Lewis, Charles Maier, Andrew Metrick, Kenneth Rogoff, Ryland Thomas, and Gertjan Vlieghe, as well as participants at the Joint Seventh CEPR Economic History Symposium-Fifth Banco de Espana Economic History seminar, the Yale economic history lunch, the ‘Money, History, and Finance’ workshop at Rutgers University, the UC Berkeley economic history seminar, the Bank of England research seminar, the CEPR-BoE monetary policy roundtable, the Applied History Meeting at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Conference Hamburg.