Coöperation in International Banking

Abstract

URING the war the allied nations were compelled more or less to pool their resources. While this pooling naturally took the form at first of intergovernmental arrangements, it soon developed into close banking cooperation. Until we ourselves entered the war, moreover, American cooperation with European Allies was largely worked out through the banks, American banks aiding largely in the loans which were made to the various allied nations. As a consequence we are today in much closer touch with the bankers of the world than we have ever been before. Of course, the large banks of New York and a few other large cities have had for many years intimate dealings with bankers in other countries, but bankers in the smaller interior cities of America have rarely had significant contacts beyond our political boundaries. The war has changed this. We find the general body of bankers in the United States-and the same rule applies to the so-called provincial bankers of the European countrieswilling and eager to enter into international financial relations. The world has been brought closer together, and international cooperation will from now on be much more common. The markets of the world have also been brought into closer contact. A merchant of Cleveland thinks no more of dealing with Melbourne than he formerly thought of dealing with St. Louis.