Dr Sabine Schneider

I am a historian of modern European and British economic governance in a global context. After completing my ESRC-funded PhD and my MPhil at the University of Cambridge, I held posts at New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where I have taught widely across European, British, and global economic history. I joined the Oxford GloCoBank project in January 2025 to examine the development of Anglo-German financial networks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Research Interests

My research and key publications have focused on the history of economic diplomacy and economic thought, the political economy of financial crises and central banking (Economic History Review) and the intersection of monetary and trade policy. I am currently completing my first book, War, Finance and Diplomacy: Germany and the Politics of the International Gold Standard, 1834-1914. The research underpinning War, Finance and Diplomacy was awarded Cambridge’s Ellen McArthur Prize in Economic History and was shortlisted for the Economic History Society’s Thirsk-Feinstein Prize. The study examines the political economy of Germany’s path to monetary union, from the creation of the Zollverein in 1834 to the outbreak of the First World War. Based on extensive new archival research, the book investigates Germany’s transition to a national gold currency, and its far-reaching impact on the country’s financial and trading relations with Britain, Europe, and Asia. It advances a revised account of Germany’s role in the world monetary system that emphasizes the country’s institutional legacy, its financial competition with Britain, and its export-oriented development policy. Casting fresh light on modern financial globalization, the study illuminates how Anglo-German rivalry and interdependence critically shaped the world monetary order before 1914.

I have a keen interest in the relevance of history to public policy, and in recent years have spoken at a branch of the US Federal Reserve on historical narratives of managing high inflation and hosted a policy roundtable on 'Central Banking and International Cooperation: Lessons from the Great Recession and the Covid-19 Crisis'. I previously coordinated the ECR Development Seminar at the Oxford Centre for Economic and Social History and was on the academic committee of the 2024 international conference at LSE on memories of financial crises in a long-run historical perspective.