Colonial and Imperial Banking History (Banking, Money and International Finance) by Hubert Bonin

Part I 
Overall issues 

1 Issues about European colonial banking
Varieties of cultures, models and histories 
Hubert Bonin and Nuno Valério 

One might suppose that banking history has come to a turning point. The accu-

mulation of case studies has for many years offered the opportunity to understand 
the specific role of banks in long-term economic development. In recent times, the 
business history approach — both methodological and theoretical — has added new 
elements for a more specific evaluation of the Chandlerian paradigm — the couple 
‘strategy’ and ‘structure’ — in this sector. There are many reasons to appreciate the 
effort that has been made to adapt a methodology, and a sort of Weltanschauung 
(some kind of a world-wide system), conceived for big industrial companies to 
financial institutions. However, some areas of banking history still need improve-

ment, and that is the case for banks active in overseas territories either under 
European influence or still undergoing the move to development. This explains 
why this book chose to confront various histories on a geographical field (Africa, 
Latin America and the Caribbean, with a few in Asia) -but also on a thematic field: 
colonial and imperial banking. 
The book is the result of a workshop conducted as part of the World Economic 
History Association (WEHA) Congress held at the University of Stellenbosch, 
South Africa, in August 2012. It was chaired jointly by Professor Hubert Bonin 
(Sciences Po Bordeaux and GREThA-Bordeaux University, France), Professor 
Nuno Valério (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) and Professor Kazuhiko Yago 
(Waseda University, Japan). The theme of the workshop was Imperial Banking: 
Imperial strategies of exporting finance modernisation (19th—20th centuries). This 
book is the second volume of the proceedings of this workshop; the first one was 
published by Pickering & Chatto in December 2014, earmarked to Asian Imperial 
Banking History. This one contains the papers presented at the workshop which 
were earmarked to colonial and imperial banking outside Asia, even though some 
chapters include Asia into their comparative and conceptual developments. But, 
although the original project was presented first as a workshop at the International 
Economic History Conference in South Africa, it has not of course kept the struc-

ture or the characteristics of the conference proceedings; the re-elaboration has 
been deep and very rigorous. All the chapters are largely the result of very fresh 
and recent research in many archives. 

Colonial and Imperial Banking History (Banking, Money and International Finance) by Hubert Bonin