Thesis: This thesis studies the role played by regional stock markets as well as their functioning between 1800 and 1945, in particular the Lyon Stock Exchange. The analytical framework draws on the literature on competition among stock exchanges. The thesis is structured in five papers. Chapter 1 deals with the creation of regional stock markets during the mid-nineteenth century, i.e. nearly 40 years after the reopening of the Paris Stock Exchange. The second and third chapters address the first aspect of the competitive dynamics between stock exchanges in France, i.e. the competition on issuers, and provide two measures of financial development: the number of companies listed on each stock market between 1870 and 1913 and the number of IPOs between 1898 and 1909. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with competition on stock market activity, i.e. on orders received by stockbrokers. While Chapter 4 is devoted to the end of the nineteenth century and and focuses specifically onthe crash of the Union Générale, Chapter 5 adresses the two World Wars. These two chapters offer two measures of stock market volumes.