The Globalization of Merchant Banking before 1850: The case of Huth & Co.

ISBN-13: 9781848936072 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 184 str.

Manuel Llorca-Jana

Opis

London merchant bankers emerged during the 1820s in the wake of financial turmoil caused by the wars of American Independence, the Napoleonic campaigns and the Anglo-American war of 1812. Though the majority of merchant bankers remained cautious in their affairs, Huth & Co established an impressive global network of trade and lending, dealing with over 6,000 correspondents in more than seventy countries. Based on archival research, this comparative study provides a new chronology of early nineteenth-century commercial and financial expansion. Huth & Co. were truly market-makers and key intermediaries of commodities and capital flows in the international economy. This is an important example of a firm shaping globalisation well before the transport and communication revolution of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. But rather than a case study, this is a comparative study concerned with the commercial and financial activities of the leading merchant-bankers of the period This book will be of great interest to business and economic historians interested in the nature of the early decades of the first globalization.

Recenzje

"This is a book written with great clarity and elegance...Without any doubt, this very interesting book is a compulsory reading for anyone interested in the world trade expansion of the nineteenth century." - Xabier Lamikiz, Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 

Spis treści

1. Early life and activities of Frederick Huth, founder of the company, c.1777-1822 2. Expansion of the firm during the 1820s-1830s and the South American branches 3. The Spanish and German connections during the 1820s-1840s 4. The Liverpool branch, agents in Britain and the US connection 5. A global enterprise of trade and lending 6. Risk management credit strategies 7. Conclusions

O autorze

Manuel Llorca-Jaña is Associate Professor of Economic and Business History at Universidad de Santiago, Chile.