This 1971 book reviews and criticises the widely accepted hypothesis that the decline of the inland bill of exchange in Britain in the nineteenth century was largely due to the process of bank amalgamation, which linked bank branches in areas of excess demand for money with branches having surplus funds. Dr Nishimura argues that the introduction of the telegraph and steamship in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, by making both supply and demand more certain, relieved the merchant of the necessity to hold large stocks of goods in anticipation of orders. This book will be useful for...

Without a means of crediting and debiting accounts worldwide and the non-physical transfer of funds, the rapid global economic integration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries would have been impossible. It is the globalization of the banking system, much of which, particularly in Asia, had its roots in the nineteenth century, that helped facilitate increased human mobility, the exchange of commodities and manufactures, and the simplified transfer of funds.
This volume examines the origins, growth, and business practices of European banks in Asia, and the development of...