The Role of Banks in the Interwar Economy [Paperback]

This 1991 volume examines the financing of industry by banks and the banks' credit intermediation in industrial economies.This 1991 volume of essays interprets the economic effect of the financing of industry by banks and of the banks' credit intermediation in industrial economies. Particular attention is given to the interplay of economics and politics, to the connections between bankers and industrialists, and to the significance of interlocking directorships.This 1991 volume of essays interprets the economic effect of the financing of industry by banks and of the banks' credit intermediation in industrial economies. Particular attention is given to the interplay of economics and politics, to the connections between bankers and industrialists, and to the significance of interlocking directorships.Although international finance and banking has been the subject of research and writing, the economic impact of banks on industrial structures and the relations between banking and industry in the twentieth century have remained relatively unexplored areas. This volume examines and interprets the economic effect of the financing of industry by banks and of the banks' credit intermediation in industrialized economies. Particular attention is given to the interplay of economics and politics, to the connections between bankers and industrialists, and to the significance of interlocking directorships. A special section is devoted to a hitherto wholly neglected problem in economic history: the vital influence of universal banking in small but highly industrialized countries in central Europe and Scandinavia.Preface; 1. Introduction Harold James; 2. Political disputes about the role of banks Gerald D. Feldman; 3. Universal banking in interwar Central Europe Fritz Weber; 4. Comparing the interwar banking history of five small countries in north-west Europe Ulf Olsson; 5. American bankers and Britain's fall from gold Diane B. Kunz; 6. Banks and the problem of capital shortage in l-