ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the changes in the structure of international capital market transactions by private enterprises. The integration of capital markets can be defined first of all as the removing of constraints on foreign exchange, of discriminatory tax measures and of other obstacles. This is the so-called ‘negative integration’. The attempts made by the European Commission to liberalise capital movements in Europe are in line with more general efforts in the same direction made by other international bodies. International trade and international movement of production factors, at least of capital, should not be considered in isolation, as they tend to be different reflections of the spatial organisation of the production process by private firms. Until 1990 the integration of long-term and short-term capital markets in the EU had made very little headway owing to the restrictions imposed on capital movements by a number of member countries.
