Financial Institutions

The histories of finance and empire have been intimately entwined. This entry charts the evolution of financial institutions from the late 15th to the 21st century. It focuses on global centers (Amsterdam, London, Paris, and New York especially) and their activities, considering their relationship with European states and empires. First it charts the emergence of a distinctive bundle of financial institutions in Early Modern Europe. Then it examines the changing nature of finance between 1815 and 1914. This period saw far more extensive export of European financial institutions and European capital, processes long suspected of being strongly connected with imperialism. Finally it considers the 20th century, a period in which financial power ceased to be solely concentrated in Europe and in which new financial devices reconfigured relations between finance and states.