New perspectives and sources of the history of banking in Latin America and Spain, nineteenth to twentieth centuries

ABSTRACT

The banking history of Latin America and Spain has emerged as a quite active field for comparative research in economics and history. To show the recent liveliness in the field and the many new sources available, the article begins with two sections that provide an overview of the banking history of many countries, as well as bibliographies and references to essential historical documents. Subsequently we present a new web page, hbancaria.org, which contains a bibliography, data, and information on primary sources, researchers, digital collections, and projects related to the field. One of the main objectives of this type of project is to promote discussion among specialists and share information through formats and technologies currently available.

KEYWORDS:

• Banking history
• Latin America and Spain
• website
• archives

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the meticulous labour of Abelardo Herrero, Daniel Fernández, Bruno Aidar, Roberto Razo, and Javier Roldán, who helped in the development of the website.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 It is thus relevant as a project which might be replicated in other developing regions such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

2 See the excellent guide to the archives of Spanish banks published by Banco de España (2019).

3 Sudrià and Blasco-Martel (2019). Also see an overview of Spanish banking history in Tortella and García (2013).

4 The website of EABH is https://bankinghistory.org/ and its journal is The Financial History Review, published by Cambridge University Press over the last quarter of a century.

5 A recent selection of essays by historical experts can be found in Díaz, Hoyo, and Marichal (2017). Document available upon request.

6 The first important study on Brazilian regional banks was that of De Saes (1986). This has been followed by quite a number of studies, including Hanley (2005) and Triner (2000).

7 The website of the Archive and Museum of the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires is http://www.bapro.com.ar/museo/index2.htm.

8 For an overview see Marichal and Riguzzi (2006).

9 The Banamex is now owned by Citicorp which was sufficiently impressed by the historical archive in Mexico to carry out a survey in the year 2003 of its other bank subsidiaries on a world scale. The result was that it found that there was no historical bank archive equivalent in quality to that of Banamex in any other country in which the banking group had offices.

10 Archivo Histórico Banamex, Isabel la Católica 40, Mezzanine, Centro Histórico, C.P. 06000, México, D.F. Tels: 1226–4019; 1226–4840; 1226–4821; 1226–5161. Fax: [phone]. Email: [email protected].

11 The address is Banco de México, Piso 1, Subgerencia de Coordinación de Archivos, Avenida 5 de Mayo, no 20, Col. Centro, Mexico City, 06059. Tel: [phone]. A guide to holdings can be found at the website: https://www.banxico.org.mx/transparencia/d/%7B4804E4B7-DFC1-4F53-A137-799817FED563%7D.pdf.

12 The website of the Casa de Moneda de Potosí is of interest: http://www.casanacionaldemoneda.org.bo/contacto.html. For information on the history of Bolivian banking, a good starting point is Mitre (1981).

13 For detailed information on the history of Colombian monetary and banking history see Meisel (1990). On Colombian sources also see http://hbancaria.org/es/colombia-archivoshistoricos/#Archivo-General-de-la-Naci%C3%B3n.

14 The programme is being conducted under the direction of Carlos Zapata, director of the Banco de la República’s historical archive at Bogotá, with a considerable staff and investment. See the journal it publishes at https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/banrep/about.

15 The Barings archive holds several hundred thousand letters of banking and commercial correspondence: https://www.baringarchive.org.uk/.

16 See the website catalogue: http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/13/1605.htm.

17 See the European Association of Banking and Financial History website: http://www.eabh.info/.

18 The historical holdings of the Deutsche Bank Archive are summarized at http://www.deutsche-bank.de/en/content/company/archives.htm. Unfortunately, the papers of the Disconto-Gesellschaft, the most important German bank prior to 1890 (involved in various Latin American loans and in some local banking firms in Argentina) were destroyed during the Great Depression, after its merger with Deutsche Bank. Some other German banks have historical archives, although not on the same scale as Deutsche Bank.

19 See https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/082.html.