Originally published in 1992, Capital Mobilization and Regional Financial Markets , argues that barriers to financial flows within regions may be as important in affecting capital flows as ...interregional barriers. The book conjectures that regional markets allow efficient mobilization of local funds and develops an analytical framework to motivate an investigation of region financial development in the Pacific Coast states between 1850 and 1920.
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The Missing Geography of Capital Markets
3. Conceptualizing Regional Financial Markets
4. Capital Growth in the Pacific Region
5. San Francisco and its Institutional Network
6. Testing the Market Integration Hypothesis
7. Conjectures and Conclusions
Appendix of Figures
Bibliography
In April 1906 the San Francisco earthquake and fire caused damage equal to more than 1 percent of GNP. Although the real effect of this shock was localized, it had an international financial impact: ...large amounts of gold flowed into the country in autumn 1906 as foreign insurers paid claims on their San Francisco policies out of home funds. This outflow prompted the Bank of England to discriminate against American finance bills and, along with other European central banks, to raise interest rates. These policies pushed the United States into recession and set the stage for the Panic of 1907. San Francisco's $200,000,000 “ash heap” involves complications which will be felt on all financial markets for many months to come and the payment of losses sustained … represents a financial undertaking of far-reaching magnitude….The Financial Times London, 6 July 1906
The Lower South remained a financial outlier in postbellum America, partly because it lacked developed metropolises. As focal points of regional economic networks, metropolises spawn externalities ...necessary for financial intermediaries. This cumulative process was constrained in the Lower South by the plantation system and staple monoculture. Only after 1880 did metropolitan networks form around new wholesale distribution centers, notably Atlanta and Dallas. Unlike coastal ports, these cities mediated more diverse commercial and financial transactions and attracted more correspondent banks. Consequently, Atlanta and Dallas were the most likely Federal Reserve cities in their districts, a view shared by local banks.
The literature on national capital market integration in nineteenth-century America has overlooked the role of markets at a regional level. Such markets were important in reducing the possible burden ...of isolation by efficiently recycling local savings, and in promoting eventual integration into a national financial market. This article presents evidence that a commercial market centered on San Francisco extended into the Pacific Coast states and formed the basis for a regional financial market. The degree of market integration is measured through tests of interest rate covariability and convergence.
Desalination of water containing high concentrations of calcium, dissolved carbon dioxide, sulfate, silica and other sparingly soluble salts is difficult because of the scaling potential. An ...innovative pre-treatment scheme was investigated at bench scale that selectively removes these constituents and produces a soft water to enable desalination with high feed water recovery. The process first removes dissolved carbon dioxide by air stripping at low pH. Magnesium is removed by precipitation at high pH. Calcium is removed by ion exchange (IX), and sulfate is removed by nanofiltration (NF). Cation regenerant from IX, containing calcium, and concentrate from NF, containing sulfate, is combined to precipitate gypsum. Concentrate from the desalination process consisting of a concentrated NaCl solution is used to regenerate the IX resins. The selective precipitation, IX, and NF processes were tested in laboratory experiments and produced magnesium hydroxide and gypsum at greater than 90% and 95% purity respectively. A process model was developed to calculate process performance, mass and liquid flow rates. The MRED process offers the following benefits: 1) greater recovery of brackish feedwater by a desalination process, 2) recovery of marketable commodities and 3) reduction in the volume and mass of waste products from the treatment process.
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•A novel pretreatment process to improve desalination of hard brackish water.•Uses well known existing unit operations to achieve innovative objectives.•Recovery of commodity materials including magnesiuim hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) from hard brackish water.•Reduced mass and volume of desalination concentrate requiring disposal
Desalination of water containing high concentrations of calcium, dissolved carbon dioxide, sulfate, silica and other sparingly soluble salts is difficult because of the scaling potential. An ...innovative pre-treatment scheme was investigated at bench scale that selectively removes these constituents and produces a soft water to enable desalination with high feed water recovery. The process first removes dissolved carbon dioxide by air stripping at low pH. Magnesium is removed by precipitation at high pH. Calcium is removed by ion exchange (IX), and sulfate is removed by nanofiltration (NF). Cation regenerant from IX, containing calcium, and concentrate from NF, containing sulfate, is combined to precipitate gypsum. Concentrate from the desalination process consisting of a concentrated NaCl solution is used to regenerate the IX resins. The selective precipitation, IX, and NF processes were tested in laboratory experiments and produced magnesium hydroxide and gypsum at greater than 90% and 95% purity respectively. A process model was developed to calculate process performance, mass and liquid flow rates. Finally, the MRED process offers the following benefits: 1) greater recovery of brackish feedwater by a desalination process, 2) recovery of marketable commodities and 3) reduction in the volume and mass of waste products from the treatment process.
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