Innovations in the world of alternative finance such as online consumer lending, fund-raising platforms and cryptocurrencies are proceeding apace. In this article, we examine three historical case studies of newly emerged non-bank financial markets and discuss the possible implications for today's alternative finance markets. The first insight is that the private sector can generally be counted on to meet previously unmet needs. Moneylenders filled a gap unaddressed by the banking system of the day. Junior market IPOs provided access to funds for smaller companies that might otherwise have struggled to raise external finance. Private currencies replaced sovereign coins in transactions at various points in history. The second insight, however, is that new financial markets and instruments eventually attract the attention of regulators. Finally, these examples are a warning to industry not to take for granted that an initially laissez-faire regulatory regime precludes a stronger response at some point in the future. In all three cases, tougher regulation – in some cases even to the point of shutting down the products and markets concerned – arrived after long periods of observation and deliberation by the state.

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另类金融：历史视角

在线消费贷款、筹款平台和加密货币等替代金融领域的创新正在迅速推进。在本文中，我们研究了新兴的非银行金融市场的三个历史案例研究，并讨论了对当今另类金融市场的可能影响。第一个见解是，通常可以依靠私营部门来满足以前未满足的需求。放债人填补了当时银行系统未解决的空白。初级市场首次公开募股为可能难以筹集外部资金的小型公司提供了资金渠道。在历史的不同阶段，私人货币在交易中取代了主权硬币。然而，第二个观点是，新的金融市场和工具最终会引起监管机构的注意。最后，这些例子是对工业界的一个警告，不要想当然地认为最初的自由放任监管制度会在未来某个时候排除更强有力的反应。在所有这三种情况下，经过国家长时间的观察和审议，更严格的监管——在某些情况下甚至关闭相关产品和市场的地步——出现了。