Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean

Abstract

Scholars have explored how the United States established political and military dominion over the Caribbean region. However, until now, the role of American banks has not received the same level of attention. Peter James Hudson's monograph adds a new dimension to the study of American intervention by documenting how American banks secured financial control over the area. In doing so, he charts the parallel rise of American imperialism and financial capitalism in the early twentieth century. The work of the powerful Wall Street banks built upon the pioneering efforts of financial frontiersmen such as Samuel M. Jarvis. He and the men he trained became adept—brazen even—at working in the murky legal and judicial margins. Hudson deftly interweaves the complicated details of the use of innovative and often legally dubious financial instruments with biographical insights into visionary bankers such as Charles E. Mitchell and loyal foot soldiers such as Joseph H....