Patrice Baubeau

baubeau
Researcher
patrice.baubeau@gmail.com

 

Patrice Baubeau is Associate Professor habil. in contemporary history at Paris Nanterre University and a researcher at IDHE.S (UMR 8533).

He has been working on monetary, banking, and financial history for the past thirty years. He defended his PhD in 2004 (Les « cathédrales de papier » ou la foi dans le crédit. Naissance et subversion du système de l’escompte en France, fin XVIIIe–premier XXe siècle, under the supervision of Prof. Michel Lescure, unpublished) and his habilitation in 2018 (Monnaie des riches, monnaies des autres – Monies of the Rich, Monies of the Others, supervised by Prof. Olivier Feiertag, publication in progress).

 

Alongside this work, he has pursued several side projects:

  • An economic-historical reading of literature: “Un modèle économique chez Balzac ? Une relecture de La Fille aux Yeux d’Or,” in Alexandre Péraud (ed.), La Comédie (in)humaine de l'argent, Lormont, Le Bord de l’eau, 2013, pp. 95–128 (“A Sketch of Samuelson’s Model in Balzac? A Tentative Reading of The Girl with the Golden Eyes”).

  • A reconstruction of a comprehensive consumer price index for France between 1938 and 1949, including black markets and the real impact of food deprivation (with Matéo Teixeira, “Inflation without Politics: How French Prices Outsmarted Bullets, 1938–1949,” MPRA Paper No. 121621, posted 09 Aug 2024, link).

  • A text-mining-based study of public opinion on economic issues during the heyday of the French press, with particular focus on financial scandals and interwar inflation (“Memory and Oblivion: How the Past Obliterated the 1929 Crisis in France,” WEHC, Lund, 2025). This also includes research on the role of the Central Bank as an information provider (“The Bank of France’s Balance Sheets Database, 1840–1998: An Introduction to 158 Years of Central Banking,” Financial History Review, 2018, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 203–230, doi:10.1017/S0968565018000070).

His current research at the MFO compares two minor but similar events in mid-19th-century England and France, when the mints on both sides of the Channel faced a “brittle gold” issue—minted coins breaking at the slightest shock. This case study opens four main avenues of investigation:

  • It highlights contrasting approaches: the issue was widely debated in England but largely kept secret in France, allowing for a comparative political history of money.

  • It offers a rare insight into the industrial and technical processes of gold refining and coin minting—the foundations of the classical gold standard.

  • It reveals conflicts between experts, scientists, and practitioners, raising questions about the legitimacy of expertise, science, and craftsmanship in times of crisis.

  • It calls for empirical testing of the French coins minted during those years.
     

Most recent publications :

[2025] « Billon, billets : les enjeux autour de la petite monnaie en France entre 1789 et 1852 », chapitre 21, in Jérôme Blanc et Bruno Théret (dir.), La monnaie entre unicité et pluralité : explorations théoriques et empiriques, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2025.

[2024] « The doctor is a quack: The Delahaye brothers, or how fringe politicians framed the 1930s financial crisis narrative in the French Senate”, in Anders Ögren, Andrés Alvarez, Masato Shizume, Vincent Bignon (eds), Money Doctors Around the Globe. A Historical Perspective, Springer, Studies in Economic History, Singapore, 2024, pp. 235-255.

[2023] « La question économique chez les Goncourt », Béatrice Laville et Vérane Partensky (dir.) Cahiers Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, [En ligne], n° 28, 2023, mis en ligne le 29 octobre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/cejdg/1258 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/cejdg.1258

[2023] « La moralisation du crédit, ou l’échec du contrôle bancaire dans l’entre-deux-guerres » in Jean-Luc Mastin (dir.), Le contrôle bancaire en France. XIXe – XXIe siècles, Lille, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2023.

[2022] « L’or : précieux, superbe, ductile, mais cassant ? Questions préliminaires sur un problème de la fin du xixe siècle » Bulletin de la SFN, 77/02 février 2022, p. 51-57.

[2021] (avec E. Monnet, A. Riva et S. Ungaro) « Flight-to-safety and the Credit Crunch. A new history of the banking crisis in France during the Great Depression », Economic History Review, 74, 1, 2021, p. 223-250.

[2021] « La vraie monnaie sonne juste : les sens à l’épreuve du vrai (1835-1864) », Bulletin de la SFN, 76/06 juin 2021, p. 241-247.

[2020] « Les petits billets de 1864 à 1879 : une innovation « dangereuse », mais pour qui ? », Dialogues d’Histoire Ancienne, Supplément n°20, Printemps 2020, De la drachme au bitcoin. La monnaie, une invention en perpétuel renouvellement (sld Catherine Grandjean), p. 203-234.