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Transatlantic Speculations: Globalization and the Panics of 1873
The year 1873 was one of financial crisis. A boom in railway construction had spurred a bull market―but when the boom turned to bust, transatlantic panic quickly became a worldwide economic downturn. In Transatlantic Speculations , Hannah Catherine Davies offers a new lens on the panics of 1873 and nineteenth-century globalization by exploring the ways in which contemporaries experienced a tumultuous period that profoundly challenged notions of economic and moral order.
Considering the financial crises of 1873 from the vantage points of Berlin, New York, and Vienna, Davies maps what she calls the dual “transatlantic speculations” of the 1870 the financial speculation that led to these panics as well as the interpretative speculations that sprouted in their wake. Drawing on a wide variety of sources―including investment manuals, credit reports, business correspondence, newspapers, and legal treatises―she analyzes how investors were prompted to put their money into faraway enterprises, how journalists and bankers created and spread financial information and disinformation, how her subjects made and experienced financial flows, and how responses ranged from policy reform to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories when these flows suddenly were interrupted. Davies goes beyond national frames of analysis to explore international economic entanglement, using the panics’ interconnectedness to shed light on contemporary notions of the world economy. Blending cultural, intellectual, and legal history, Transatlantic Speculations gives vital transnational and comparative perspective on a crucial moment for financial markets, globalization, and capitalism.
Considering the financial crises of 1873 from the vantage points of Berlin, New York, and Vienna, Davies maps what she calls the dual “transatlantic speculations” of the 1870 the financial speculation that led to these panics as well as the interpretative speculations that sprouted in their wake. Drawing on a wide variety of sources―including investment manuals, credit reports, business correspondence, newspapers, and legal treatises―she analyzes how investors were prompted to put their money into faraway enterprises, how journalists and bankers created and spread financial information and disinformation, how her subjects made and experienced financial flows, and how responses ranged from policy reform to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories when these flows suddenly were interrupted. Davies goes beyond national frames of analysis to explore international economic entanglement, using the panics’ interconnectedness to shed light on contemporary notions of the world economy. Blending cultural, intellectual, and legal history, Transatlantic Speculations gives vital transnational and comparative perspective on a crucial moment for financial markets, globalization, and capitalism.
248 pages, Hardcover
Published November 20, 2018
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May 8, 2024
- The crash stage, ironically, started with all time high. Even though there were plenty of warning signs (including the Vienna trading house crashing and the underlying securities are tied to Berlin bourse), wishful thinking gives people illusion of hope, that "it won't happen here" or "things aboard won't effect us, since we're isolated"
- Scapegoating, or put emphasis of growth on something unrelated was rather rampant. For instance, the Pairs' gold transfer is blamed as the cause of "excess monetary reserve". Or The World's Fair was to be seen as a sure way to stimulated the economy (spoiler: it didn't. But people quickly forgot that): it's obvious that the speculators have very short attention span. And the fundamentals aren't all that important. They trade on mood, and mood is largely dependent on fictional/liberal interpretation account of the news
- "Gradually, then suddenly". The crash took a rather long time to unfold. So much so that at one point, the general consensus was that crash was to come, but it never did (for a while). And the consensus shifted towards, "if it still hasn't come, we probably won't see it" and speculation continued rampantly
- The world is inherently extremely linked. However, they're often linked in indirect ways that are invisible to the lay person. When the American market crashed, the Europeans quickly dismissed America as "land of extreme speculation" and because Europeans are so prudent in their dealings, won't see cotangent (they were wrong). Or when the German market crashed, the American quickly dismissed Germans as "slow moving" and it won't happen to America since America is so swift in comparison
- Scapegoating, or put emphasis of growth on something unrelated was rather rampant. For instance, the Pairs' gold transfer is blamed as the cause of "excess monetary reserve". Or The World's Fair was to be seen as a sure way to stimulated the economy (spoiler: it didn't. But people quickly forgot that): it's obvious that the speculators have very short attention span. And the fundamentals aren't all that important. They trade on mood, and mood is largely dependent on fictional/liberal interpretation account of the news
- "Gradually, then suddenly". The crash took a rather long time to unfold. So much so that at one point, the general consensus was that crash was to come, but it never did (for a while). And the consensus shifted towards, "if it still hasn't come, we probably won't see it" and speculation continued rampantly
- The world is inherently extremely linked. However, they're often linked in indirect ways that are invisible to the lay person. When the American market crashed, the Europeans quickly dismissed America as "land of extreme speculation" and because Europeans are so prudent in their dealings, won't see cotangent (they were wrong). Or when the German market crashed, the American quickly dismissed Germans as "slow moving" and it won't happen to America since America is so swift in comparison
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