Abstract:
Auctions have been used around the globe since time immemorial to trade a great variety of goods. They always existed alongside “regular” trade, though, and marked differences existed across time and space in the goods that were auctioned and the auction mechanisms that were applied for this. The auctions literature, however, has so far paid little attention to the historical contexts that determined these differences. The reasons for applying existing auction mechanisms to new goods, copying mechanisms from elsewhere, or even developing new ones therefore remain poorly understood. The same holds for the role governments played in this and for how open and transparent auctions subsequently were for the common public. To solve this lacuna this session takes a global, comparative approach to determine how historical contexts determined the use and performance of auctions since 1700. It brings together economic historians and economists working on a broad range of products, regions, time periods, and auction mechanisms. The scholars listed below have already committed to the session, which will be completed through a call for papers (e.g. through EH.net) when accepted.

Chair:
Anne Wegener Sleeswijk (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Papers:
1. Lars Boerner (King’s College London), ‘Auctions – A Selective Literature Review and Research Agenda Through the Lens of History and Market Design’.
2. Anne Wegener Sleeswijk (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), ‘Auctions for Wine in the United Provinces and the East Indies in the 18th Century: Merchant Practices and the Social Definition of Value’.
3. Kristina Lilja (Uppsala University) and Pernilla Jonsson (Stockholm University), ‘Auctions and Credits: Clothes and textiles as store of value and medium of exchange, Sweden 1830–1900’.
4. Christiaan van Bochove (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Lars Boerner (King’s College London), ‘Auctions and Bidding Behavior on Financial Markets in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam’.
5. Bernardo Wjuniski (London School of Economics), ‘Guiding the Invisible Hand: Auctions Design and Multiple Exchange Rates in Brazil, 1953-1961’.
6. Simon Ville (University of Wollongong), ‘The ascendancy of the centralised auction system in the international wool trade, 1850-1939’.