The United States may have had a substantial economy well before the end of the 19th century and its international trade was sizeable too. As the century came to a close, the country’s financial system had also developed to allow it to meaningfully reduce the country’s reliance on capital from abroad. However, America’s banks…
The early diplomatic history of the United States, before the War of Independence even came to a close, revolved around securing recognition from other countries and raising money from their governments, bankers, or investors. Of course, London’s financial markets were off limits until the peace treaty of 1783 and France, while the provider of…
The organization of commodity exchanges and the creation of instruments like futures contracts have made it easier to connect buyers and sellers. They have also increased the role and impact of intermediaries like commodities traders. Occasionally, these intermediaries have accumulated positions, either as buyers or sellers of a commodity, that were large relative to…
Colonial ventures were partly motivated by profit in the 17th century. Some, like the English colony at Virginia, were established as profit-seeking companies. They raised money by selling shares to investors with various different interests though. To many, the profit motive was of secondary importance. Some supported the Virginia Company, even buying its shares,…
Many famous traders and investors’ talent is closed to the participation of ordinary people. They manage money at banks and hedge funds where access is exclusive. Some of the best become famous, close their funds to new investment, or even return money to investors so that the best opportunities are preserved for the money managers…
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, trade was liberalized so that goods could be imported without tariffs being imposed in progressively more and more cases. However, there have been waves of protectionism, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 introduced by the United States being one of the most notable of the 20th century. Even…
London’s financial community was involved in the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the West Indies nearly from their start. Its involvement lasted until the day slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833. At the time of abolition, it was decided that slaveholders, and indirectly those who had financed them, would be…
More than a century ago, debt restructurings involving the interventions of foreign governments were arranged for countries like Greece and the Ottoman Empire. These sorts of arrangements were rare though. In the second half of the 20th century, the number of independent countries grew as did their access to foreign credit. The result was…
Since the birth of banking, a hurdle in offering banking products to the mass market has been the overhead involved in building and maintaining a network of physical branches, personnel, and offline record-keeping systems that could accommodate large volumes of small accounts and transactions. Online banking had the potential to relieve banks, at least…
The role of savings in an economy is crucial. Savers’ surpluses fund investment elsewhere in an economy. In a sort of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ economy, with only one person, this link is obvious and the single actor must save, put off immediate consumption, if he is going to accumulate a stock of capital that might…
