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ABSTRACT
The importance of smaller financial centres in international capitalism has recently been highlighted by a number of ‘leaks’. Yet such public attention stands in contrast to the paucity of historiographical research on these relatively new centres. To this regard, Luxembourg provides an interesting case study. While identified as a ‘global specialist’ by the Global Financial Centres Index, the genealogy of how it came to achieve this status remains largely under-researched. This article reviews the historiography of the Luxembourg financial centre from both external perspectives – how the international social sciences and humanities have positioned the Luxembourg financial sector within the broader finance and banking context – and internal viewpoints – how scholars in Luxembourg have recounted the relevant events. The Luxembourg financial centre began to appear in international historiography only in the last fifteen years. With only rare departures from general overviews and a tendency not to consult local sources, the contributions of international historians have mostly attempted to identify time frames and contextualise the particularities of its historical development. That said, a recent geographical diversification of the literature has seen the appearance of publications that demonstrate a more detailed understanding of its internal structures and links with other nerve centres of the global financial system. While a Luxembourg historiography began to develop in the late 1970s, it has often been produced to coincide with commemorative events, funded by players in the financial centre and frequently written by these same actors. While not necessarily hagiographic in approach, a lack of distance from the subject and a failure to problematise the subject has nevertheless meant that these writings are little more than factual introductions that, while useful, are limited in their historiographical depth. Furthermore, a dearth of archival research has produced a repetitive narrative based around a selection of key events and figures.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Ogle, “Archipelago Capitalism.”
2. Ingebritsen, “Katzenstein’s Legacy 25 Years After.”
3. Dörry, “Strategic Nodes in Investment Fund Global Production Networks.”
4. Le Luxembourg is considered a ‘global specialist’ by the Global Financial Centres Index 25 (2019).
5. The two examples discussed here are: Palan, Murphy, and Chavagneux, Tax Havens and Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations.
6. Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 85.
7. Ibid., 86.
8. Ronen, Murphy, and Chavagneux, Tax Havens, 107, 119.
9. Ibid., 119.
10. Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 85–6.
11. Ibid., 91.
12. Cassis, Grossman, and Schenk, The Oxford Banking and Financial History.
13. Cassis, Capitals of Capital.
14. Cottrell, Lange, and Olsson, Centres and Peripheries
15. This choice of publications follows John D. Turner, who cites the latter as leading journals in the field. See Turner, “Financial History and Financial Economics.”
16. Cottrell, Lange, and Olsson, Centres and Peripheries; Schenk, “Banking Crises.”
17. In addition to Cassis, Capitals of Capital, see also Merki, Europas Finanzzentren.
18. Palan, Murphy, and Chavagneux, Tax Havens, 3.
19. Ogle, “Archipelago Capitalism,” 1433.
20. The author who perhaps most prominently mentions Luxembourg is Chris O’Malley in Bonds without Borders.
21. Bussière and Cassis, London and Paris as International Financial Centres, 196.
22. O’Malley, Bonds without Borders.
23. Bussière, Dumoulin, and Willaert, The Bank of the European Union.
24. The distinction between different types of centre was addressed in an influential article by Y. S. Park from 1982: Park, “The Economics of Offshore Financial Centers.”
25. Farquet, La défense du paradis fiscal suisse.
26. A typical example is: Société de la Bourse, A Guide to 50 Years of Eurobonds in Luxembourg.
27. Merki, “Der Finanzplatz Liechtenstein: Zürichs attraktive Außenstelle.” The original quote is ‘heikle[n] Balance zwischen Kooperation und Abgrenzung,’ 188.
28. Maquil, “La place financière de Luxembourg.”
29. We chose to examine French-speaking Belgian universities both because their limited number facilitates bibliographical research via the library catalogues, and because a significant number of Luxembourger students attended French-speaking Belgian universities during this period: Statistiques historiques, 535.
31. Peporté et al., Inventing Luxembourg, 33.
32. Thomas, “Naissance d’un paradis fiscal.”
35. Eich, “La législation holding.”
39. Dörry, “The Role of Elites,” 21.
40. Walther, Schultz, and Dörry, “Specialised International Financial Centres and their Crisis Resilience.”
41. Graf and Priemel, “Zeitgeschichte in der Welt der Sozialwissenschaften.”
42. Zahlen, “Entre quantification, personnalisation et autoportrait.”
44. More so for his role in the Werner Plan than as Minister of Finance (1953–64, 1969–74), see: Danescu, “The Werner Report.”
45. Trausch and de Vreese, Luxembourg et les banques, 10.
46. Moyse, Meiers, and Maquil, Les artisans de l’industrie financière.
47. Calmes, Une banque raconte son histoire, 10.
48. For example: Association luxembourgeoise des fonds d’investissement, ALFI: 20th Anniversary; Association luxembourgeoise des fonds d’investissement, ALFI: Association luxembourgeoise des fonds d’investissement 1988–1998.
49. Ibid., p. 7 explains that Michel Maquil, former Director of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, ‘managed to persuade several people to share their account’.
50. Lehners, “The History of Banks in Luxembourg”; Franz, “Der Finanzplatz Luxemburg als Ergebnis wirtschaftlichen Bedarfs, politischen Willens und europäischer Integration.”
51. Auxenfants, “Paradis fiscal”; Auxenfants, “Place financière.”
52. Thomas, “Naissance d’un paradis fiscal”; Thomas, “Les confrères.”
53. An earlier ‘History of Luxembourg’ published in 1972 barely mentions the history of the steel industry; that of the financial centre does not appear at all. The narrative finishes with the end of the Second World War in 1945. Herchen et al., Manuel d’histoire nationale.
54. Trausch, Le Luxembourg à l’époque contemporaine, 186.
55. Trausch, Histoire du Luxembourg, 263–4.
56. Pauly, Histoire du Luxembourg, 131.
57. Haag, The Rise of Luxembourg, 229.
58. Kreins, Histoire du Luxembourg, 112.
59. Under pressure from the Ministry of Finance, any archives containing tax data have been made inaccessible for 100 years. Pauly, “Das Steuergeheimnis gilt auf ewig.”
60. For example, the collective bargaining agreement for the banking sector in the 1990s includes professions as varied as ‘supervisory staff’, ‘cleaner’, ‘kitchen help’ and so on: Thomas, “Dussmann ante portas.”
61. Thomas, “Les confrères.” See also Dezalay, Marchands de droit.
62. Zahlen, La Luxembourgeoise.
63. On this subject see the very interesting autobiography of Hamilius, Luxemburg im Wandel der Zeiten.
65. Doering-Manteuffel and Raphael, Nach dem Boom; Niall Ferguson uses the expression ‘shock of the global’ to refer to the developments of the 1970s. See Ferguson et al., The Shock of the Global.
67. The Liechtenstein case was partly addressed in discussions in the early twenty-first century concerning the participation of Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the spoliation of European Jews during the Second World War. A committee of historians published six studies detailing the role of Liechtenstein, two of which are directly linked to the history of the financial sector: Ernst & Young AG and Karlen, Untersuchung zu nachrichtenlosen Vermögenswerten bei liechtensteinischen Banken in der NS-Zeit; Lussy and Lopez, Finanzbeziehungen Liechtensteins. For other countries, the historiography is virtually absent.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Benoît Majerus
Benoît Majerus is Associate Professor for European History at the University of Luxembourg and is currently working on a history of the financial place of Luxembourg after 1945.
Benjamin Zenner
Benjamin Zenner holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary European history from the University of Luxembourg. He is currently writing a PhD dissertation at the Universities of Luxembourg and Lausanne on the history of banking regulation in Luxembourg, 1945–84.