290 Ferguson and Schularick TABLE 1 SUMMARY STATISTICS OF YIELD DATA.1880-1913 (yield,percent per annum) Observations Mean St.Dev. Minimum Maximum All borrowers 1,461 5.39 2.86 2.86 22.33 Independent countries 909 6.30 3.30 2.97 22.33 Empire borrowers 552 3.89 0.43 2.86 6.35 Sources:Data appendix at http://fas.harvard.edu/--history/facultyPage.cgi?fac-ferguson the selected bonds had to be issued in large volumes and actively traded.Finally,the bonds needed to be long-term,typically of a matur- ity of over ten years,and to have quotations for at least three consecu- tive years. The resulting dataset includes securities from 57 independent coun- tries,colonies,and self-governing parts of the British Empire:in other words,almost the entire universe of foreign borrowing in the London market,reaching not only "from the Cape to Cairo"but also from Bos- ton to Buenos Aires and from Budapest to Beijing.8 The rationale for constructing such a broad sample was to avoid the regional biases that characterized previous studies.Bordo and Rockoff used observations for just ten countries,all either European or American.The two most recent investigations of pre-1914 bond yields by Obstfeld and Taylor and by Flandreau and Zumer were based on samples of around 20 coun- tries.The samples in both cases were predominantly European and American.Quite clearly it is difficult to form robust conclusions about the significance of colonial status without including data for at least some Asian and African countries. Table 1 shows the summary statistics for our current yield series.30 In total,we count about 1,450 observations,roughly 900 for independent countries from Europe,America,Asia,and Africa and about 550 for is- suers from the British Empire,drawn from these four continents as well as Australasia.Immediately obvious from the yield data is the signifi- cantly lower average yield of Empire borrowers (3.89 percent)com- pared with the yields of independent countries(6.30 percent). 28 The complete list of countries and colonies can be found in the data appendix.The coun- tries that were excluded despite the availability of loan quotations fulfilling our criteria were Bolivia,Costa Rica,Paraguay,Honduras,and Cuba as well as some small island empire bor- rowers such as Barbados and Trinidad,mostly for lack of economic control variables. 29 Bordo and Rockoff,“Gold Standard..” 3 We decided to exclude about 20 observations with yields of more than 20 percent,virtually all these refer to Latin American loans that had been in full default for many years.The Annual Reports of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders indicated that investors reckoned that full repayment was most unlikely in these cases.290 Ferguson and Schularick TABLE 1 SUMMARY STATISTICS OF YIELD DATA, 1880–1913 (yield, percent per annum) Observations Mean St. Dev. Minimum Maximum All borrowers 1,461 5.39 2.86 2.86 22.33 Independent countries 909 6.30 3.30 2.97 22.33 Empire borrowers 552 3.89 0.43 2.86 6.35 Sources: Data appendix at http://fas.harvard.edu/~history/facultyPage.cgi?fac=ferguson. the selected bonds had to be issued in large volumes and actively traded. Finally, the bonds needed to be long-term, typically of a matur￾ity of over ten years, and to have quotations for at least three consecu￾tive years. The resulting dataset includes securities from 57 independent coun￾tries, colonies, and self-governing parts of the British Empire: in other words, almost the entire universe of foreign borrowing in the London market, reaching not only “from the Cape to Cairo” but also from Bos￾ton to Buenos Aires and from Budapest to Beijing.28 The rationale for constructing such a broad sample was to avoid the regional biases that characterized previous studies. Bordo and Rockoff used observations for just ten countries, all either European or American.29 The two most recent investigations of pre-1914 bond yields by Obstfeld and Taylor and by Flandreau and Zumer were based on samples of around 20 coun￾tries. The samples in both cases were predominantly European and American. Quite clearly it is difficult to form robust conclusions about the significance of colonial status without including data for at least some Asian and African countries. Table 1 shows the summary statistics for our current yield series.30 In total, we count about 1,450 observations, roughly 900 for independent countries from Europe, America, Asia, and Africa and about 550 for is￾suers from the British Empire, drawn from these four continents as well as Australasia. Immediately obvious from the yield data is the signifi￾cantly lower average yield of Empire borrowers (3.89 percent) com￾pared with the yields of independent countries (6.30 percent). 28 The complete list of countries and colonies can be found in the data appendix. The coun￾tries that were excluded despite the availability of loan quotations fulfilling our criteria were Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Honduras, and Cuba as well as some small island empire bor￾rowers such as Barbados and Trinidad, mostly for lack of economic control variables. 29 Bordo and Rockoff, “Gold Standard.” 30 We decided to exclude about 20 observations with yields of more than 20 percent, virtually all these refer to Latin American loans that had been in full default for many years. The Annual Reports of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders indicated that investors reckoned that full repayment was most unlikely in these cases