Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean

by Peter James Hudson

From the end of the nineteenth century until the onset of the Great Depression, Wall Street embarked on a stunning, unprecedented, and often bloody period of international expansion in the Caribbean. A host of financial entities sought to control banking, trade, and finance in the region. In the process, they not only trampled local sovereignty, grappled with domestic banking regulation, and backed US imperialism—but they also set the model for bad behavior by banks, visible still today. In Bankers and Empire , Peter James Hudson tells the provocative story of this period, taking a close look at both the institutions and individuals who defined this era of American capitalism in the West Indies. Whether in Wall Street minstrel shows or in dubious practices across the Caribbean, the behavior of the banks was deeply conditioned by bankers’ racial views and prejudices. Drawing deeply on a broad range of sources, Hudson reveals that the banks’ experimental practices and projects in the Caribbean often led to embarrassing failure, and, eventually, literal erasure from the archives.

Genres: History, Economics, Race, Nonfiction, American History, United States, Academic

368 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2018

Reviews

[Valeria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as bad as it could have been and the discussion was really good!

[Ivanna Berrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

My prof lol no 5 stars bc no favoritism

[Michael Skora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great deal of interesting facts but tremendously under-theorized.

[burak · Rating 3 out of 5]

eye opening book, immensely fascinating but lacks substance, it reads as a collection of events, somewhat like a diary more than anything and tries to stretch certain claims in a tiresome fashion. nevertheless, a valuable book, especially for a history addict like me.

[M Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great topic; I did not think it was a great handling of the topic.

Little has been written about the American financial institutions moving out on to the world stage as the grasp of the Europeans began to slip at the start of the 20th century. This could have been a comprehensive analysis of the strength and weakness of American methods, the rise of the managerial class in what had been a proprietor-driven sector, or the exposure of American naivete to the wiles of an older world. Instead, the focus is on the experience of the NY banks in Haiti and Cuba where racism and colonialism could be more closely examined.

Why not examine the experience of Citi and Bank of Boston in Argentina? Too white.
Why not examine the Canadian banks which had been in the Caribbean even longer than the NY banks? Not clear, but maybe it's the old Canada good/US bad trope. Certainly the locals didn't feel that way about the Canadians.
Why skip over Puerto Rico? Better scandals in Haiti and Cuba.

The NY banks did not always behave well, but Prof. Hudson all too often leaves out the profit motive in explaining their actions. They couldn't grow geographically in the US and this is what was left to them. It wasn't necessarily to grow US power, rather they wanted US power to back them up and reduce their risk.

The underlying pattern that Prof. Hudson fails to surface is that the banks are very welcome on the islands when they are lending new money and thus growing the pie. However, when they try to collect it, thus shrinking the pie, they become reviled. In short, there are too many elite aspirants on these stagnant islands and the banks become the "other" and an easy scapegoat. His comments that the banks should have treated the elite aspirants with more respect in places like Haiti seem deeply ironic in light of current events. Yes, the banks were quite racist by our standards, but that does not ennoble the local elites, who were and are venal.

Finally, the level of financial fluency is generally quite high. The author does confuse SocGen with Societe Generale CIC. And asserts that deposit gathering increased the bank's capital, which is not the case.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does an excellent job mechanizing the role of U.S. finance in early 20th century American imperial expansion in the western hemisphere. It might be too detailed for casual readers, but for history people or anyone with a general interest in business\finance the detail is excellent. I think there are places where the argument about the development of racial capitalism is less carefully mechanized but still provides a useful framework for thinking about both the role of banking in American overseas power, and the role of American empire in the development of the modern financial sector and regulatory regime

[Samuel Mullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough investigation into an under-discussed phenomenon, which usefully draws links between ideology and economic/material interests. The application of racial capitalism to US imperialism in the Caribbean is very useful. The quasi-narrative style is quite dense with facts and anecdotes (all of which are dutifully referenced), which, paired with the broader theoretical undertones, makes for a surprisingly engaging read. :)

[Jason S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was so detailed in terms of its narratives of finance and banking themes that at times the thesis got lost and the text was too dense. Some really awesome parts though, especially the chapter on banking and the occupation of Haiti.

[edna]

I enjoyed this book but do feel slightly disappointed in its execution.

I really like the overall sentiment and a lot of the arguments are really detailed. At times there is a punchy concluding paragraph or line that really gets to the heart of the issue - but I found this missing at other points… (Maybe because I’m not really a finance person, the financial detail lost me a bit).

One thing I really liked about Hudson’s prose was the recurring discussion of architectural design and how the financial buildings reflected and conveyed imperialist ideas.

What I was less fond of was the eminent focus on individual bankers that seemed a bit fetishistic or voyeuristic at points - I feel like I know a lot more about the Vanderlip’s and Farnham’s than I do about the Caribbean people suffering from the consequences of financial imperialism.

I feel like there was a great opportunity to write a scathing critique of American financial institutional and their imperial relations that remain today, that could have been combined with an alternative historiographical approach that centred the most marginalised and exploited of Caribbean society - and that this opportunity was slightly missed.

Still a good and interesting read.

[Mills College Library]

332.10972 H8863 2017