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 periodThis book will be of great interest to business and economic historians interested in the nature of the early decades of the first globalization.

"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 periodThis book will be of great interest to business and economic historians interested in the nature of the early decades of the first globalization."--Provided by publisher.

Throughout the twentieth century, the Chilean business elite has played a central role in the country, not just as entrepreneurs but also as political and social actors. The chapters in this book, the first in English on the history of Chilean business, focus on the importance of diversified family business groups in twentieth-century Chile, their dynamics, organisation, and management, and their interaction with foreign investors and the state. Using a range of company and government archives, as well as other contemporary sources in Chile, Britain, and the United States, the individual authors pay particular attention to many key topics: the evolution of the Edwards family businesses, those of Pascual Baburizza, Chilean corporate networks, British firms in the nitrate industry, the Anglo South American Bank, the Copec group, Compañía Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego, the energy sector, SOFOFA (the industrialists’ association), and the recent growth of Chilean multinationals.

A study of the relations between Britain and Chile during the Spanish American independence era (1806-1831). It focuses on the dynamic, unpredictable and changing nature of cultural encounters to cast doubt on the assumption that imperialism was their obvious outcome and to understand further nation-building processes.

This edited volume constitutes the first available comprehensive business history of Latin America available in English. It offers a unique synthesis of the development of capitalism in Latin America that takes into consideration the complexities of each country, while simultaneously understanding broader commonalities. With chapters written by a group of internationally renowned senior scholars with a long trajectory in business historical research, the volume is divided into two major areas. First, the development of capitalism in some of the major economies of the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) through the lens of management strategic decisions and entrepreneurial activity. And second, the long-term evolution of factors affecting the region’s particular evolution of capitalism and business systems. They include the rise of environmentally sustainable businesses; the impact of crime on entrepreneurial activity; the evolution of family firms, the changing strategies of multinational corporations in the region; the evolution of business groups; the role of female entrepreneurs; and the challenges for conducting business in a region with poor infrastructure. This insightful collection serves both as a straightforward introduction for those looking for a broad understanding of the region and for those interested in conducting comparative studies between Latin America and other areas of the world. It will be of direct appeal to researchers and advanced students of business and economic history and international business in particular.

The open access publication of this book has been made possible thanks to the International Institute of Social History – Amsterdam. Potosí (today Bolivia) was the major supplier for the Spanish Empire and for the world and still today boasts the world's single-richest silver deposit. This book explores the political economy of silver production and circulation illuminating a vital chapter in the history of global capitalism. It travels through geology, sacred spaces, and technical knowledge in the first section; environmental history and labor in the second section; silver flows, the heterogeneous world of mining producers, and their agency in the third; and some of the local, regional, and global impacts of Potosí mining in the fourth section. The main focus is on the establishment of a complex infrastructure at the site, its major changes over time, and the new human and environmental landscape that emerged for the production of one of the world ́s major commodities: silver. Eleven authors from different countries present their most recent research based on years of archival research, providing the readers with cutting-edge scholarship. Contributors are: Julio Aguilar, James Almeida, Rossana Barragán Romano, Mariano A. Bonialian, Thérèse Bouysse-Cassagne, Kris Lane, Tristan Platt, Renée Raphael, Masaki Sato, Heidi V. Scott, and Paula C. Zagalsky.

This book analyses the formation of the Spanish banking system. It provides a general overview of European financial systems in operation during the mid-nineteenth century, followed by a detailed analysis of the economic and institutional changes that gave rise to a new form of banking in Spain. The chapters analyse changes on banking regulation; study the social origin of banks’ promoters; investigate the economic results of banks; and evaluate the interaction between banks and the economy as a whole. Finally, the causes, extent and consequences of monetary plurality in Spain and its European context are discussed. As such, this book covers the gap that exists in the Spanish banking historiography. Until now only the Bank of Spain and its predecessors had been adequately examined. As the Bank of Spain acted mostly as the state’s financial agent, we know very little about private-sector financing. This text provides data and analysis for a more comprehensive view of early Spanish financial development in a comparative European framework. The Origins of Modern Banking in Spain should be considered essential reading for financial history students and scholars, as well as anybody interested in longview approaches to modern financial development.