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Abstract
This paper examines the offshore financial center (OFC) of the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean as part of an attempt, on the one hand, to map emerging geographies associated with rapid and far-reaching changes in the international financial system, and, on the other hand, to further a Marxian understanding of how capital increases its flexibility and averts crisis (not unproblematically) through the financial system. Thus, in this paper, the major industries of the offshore sector in the Caymans are outlined and their development presented. I then examine the Cayman Islands' development and operation as an OFC in two wider contexts: first, changes in the practice of international banking, and second, the regional competition between “entrepreneurial islands” for offshore finance. I argue that the development of new spaces in the global economy—OFCs—cannot be understood without an understanding of changes in the international financial system (new markets, instruments, risks, and others). Furthermore, the changes in the international financial system cannot be understood except as operating through space and specifically through distinct spaces such as the OFCs. Although the Cayman Islands are a small place, they have strategically positioned themselves at the nexus of the circuits of fast and fungible financial capital and offer a window on the workings of the international financial system.