International Banking 1870 1914

This book, the product of a unique international scholarly collaboration sponsored jointly by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, provides a comprehensive survey on international banking from 1870 to 1914. In that period international investment reached dimensions previously unknown, and the banking systems of the world achieved a degree of internationalization without precedent. The book's authors, twenty-five scholars from fifteen countries, are the acknowledged experts in their fields. They detail the origin and development of internationally oriented banks in each major country, and explain their role in foreign investment and industrial finance. They look at all areas of the world that were involved in international investment, either as investors, recipients of investment, or both. The definitive work on international banking from 1870 to 1914, this book will interest scholars and students in financial and banking history, bankers and economists in the finanical industry, and general historians.

Financial experts from various countries provide a comprehensive survey of the origins and growth of the modern international banking system in a critical period in the emergence of the modern world economy.

During the years before 1914 the world’s still largely unused resources were brought increasingly within the framework of a single world economy. This process owed much to Britain’s ability to export capital on a scale which has never since been equalled. Yet periods of heavy investment overseas alternated with home investment booms that absorbed the greater part of Britain’s savings. The reasons for this fluctuation, and the mechanism which linked Britain’s economic development with the rest of the world, are still subject to debate. This volume illuminates the problems of the global economy today by examining different interpretations and research from history.

City Bankers, 1890-1914 is a major contribution to a controversial area of economic history and to the debate about the nature of British society in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. It provides a detailed analysis of the banking community of London between 1890 and 1914 when the City of London was the undisputed financial centre of the world.

This text focuses on the international banking revolution of the 1960s and provides a fresh historical perspective on the foundations of the subsequent financial globalization. The contributors address four main issues: the revival of London as a world financial centre; the emergence of Euro-banking as a new frontier of growth for credit institutions; the competitive challenge brought home by American banks to their European counterparts; and the strategic response by British and Continental banks.