The Role of Banks in the Interwar Economy

by Harold James (Editor), Hekan Lindgren (Editor), Alice Teichova (Editor)

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.

290 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1991

About the author

Harold James is Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University.