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American Investments in Pre-Soviet Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

Richard B. Fisher
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Extract

The “debtor nation” has become the chief creditor nation. The financial center of the world, which required thousands of years to journey from the Euphrates to the Thames and the Seine, seems passing to the Hudson between daybreak and dark.

John Hay, 1902.

When John Hay thus eulogized the economic progress the United States had seen under the leadership of the late President McKinley, the nation was, in fact, a debtor to European capital. Yet the farsighted statesman had interpreted correctly the world financial trend.

Between 1900 and 1914 foreign investments of the United States advanced from an estimated $700,000,000 to well over $1,000,000,-000. By 1920 American commercial investments—those in trading and industrial enterprises—in foreign countries amounted to nearly $4,000,000,000.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1949 , pp. 90 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1949

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References

1 Hay, John, “Eulogy of President McKinley,” Congressional Record, February 27, 1902, 57th Congress, 1 st Session, p. 2201.Google Scholar

2 Viallate, Achille, Economic Imperialism and International Relations during the last 50 Years (New York, 1923), p. 37.Google Scholar

3 Bacon, Nathaniel T., “American International Indebtedness,” Yale Review, IX (1900-1901), 268-74.Google Scholar Total indebtedness estimated at $3,330,000, of which $2,500,000 was held in England.

4 Crihan, Anton, Le Capital étranger en Russie (Paris, 1934), pp. 28–30; Google Scholar Nearing, Scott and Freeman, Joseph, Dollar Diplomacy; a Study in American Imperialism (New York, 1925), p. 11 Google Scholar; Bacon, , op. cit., p. 276.Google Scholar

5 Ingalls, Walter R., Wealth and Income of the American People (York, Pa., 1922), p. 71 Google Scholar: American commercial investments in foreign countries, 1920, in millions of dollars:

6 Dunn, Robert W., American Foreign Investments (New York, 1926), p. 17.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 177.

8 Ingalls, , op. cit., p. 47.Google Scholar

9 New York Times, November 3, 1917, p. 1, col. 7.

10 Federal Reserve Bulletin, IV (April I, 1918), 279. The high average commitment results from more than $2,000,000,000 guaranteed to Great Britain, and more than $11,000,000,000 to France.

11 Kies, William S., “Branch Banks and Our Foreign Trade,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, LIX (May, 1915), 303.Google Scholar

12 Abbott, Lawrence F., The Story of NYL1C; a History of the Origins and Development of the New York Life Insurance Company from 1845 t0 1929 (New York, 1930), pp. 117-28.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 128.

14 The Times, (London) Russian Supplement, October 20, 1913, p. 9, col. I.

15 Lewery, Leonard J., Foreign Capital Investments in Russian Industries and Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, United States Department of Commerce, Miscellaneous Series No. 124, (Washington, D.C., 1923), p. 5.Google Scholar

16 The Fitch Record of Government Finances for 1916, (New York, 1916)

17 Bradstreet's, Vol. XLIV, June 17, 1916; July 8, 1916; November 18, 1916.

18 New York Times, June 14, 1916, November 17, 1916, and dates immediately preceding these.

19 One rouble equaled .51 plus.

20 New York Times, June 20, 1916, p. 14, col. 4.

21 Ibid., November 17, 1916, p. 15, col. 2.

22 The Times, (London) Russian Supplement, April 26, 1915, p. 9, col. 4..

23 Bradstreet's, XLI (July 19, 1913), 452.

24 Crihan, , op. cit., p. 270 Google Scholar; from Granovskij, E. L., Monopoly Capitalism in Russia (1926), p. 141 (in Russian).Google Scholar

25 New York Times, December 17, 191 3, p. 8, col. 2.

26 Ibid., January 28, 1916, p. 13, col. 1.

27 Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Corporations, The International Harvester Company (Washington, D.C., 1913), p. 67.Google Scholar

28 Moody, John, Moody's Analyses of Investments, Part II, “Public Utilities and Industrials” (New York, 1917), p. 1274.Google Scholar

29 The Rand-McNally Bankers’ Directory and the Bankers’ Register with List of Attorneys, (New York, 1919), p. 450, advertisement. Other dual directorships in financial and commercial organizations dealing with pre-Soviet Russia:

F. G. Bourne: Singer Manufacturing Co.; Babcock and Wilcox Co.

H. Baker: Vacuum Oil Co. (treas.); Otis Elevator Co.

C. N. Bliss: Equitable Life Assurance Society; New York Life

G. H. Millikin: National City Bank; New York Life

T. W. Lamont: J. P. Morgan and Co.; International Harvester Corp

30 See supra, p 96 and 97.

31 Bradstreet's, XXXVII (October 22, 1910), 691.

32 New York Times, November 14, 1916, p. 16, col. 3.

33 Federal Reserve Bulletin, IV (October I, 1918), 955.

34 Russia, Vols. I–II (1916-1917).

35 Crihan, , op. cit., p. 249.Google Scholar

36 Moody, , op. cit., (1916), p. 1782.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., (1915), p. 1312.

38 Miller, Margaret S., The Economic Development of Russia, 1905—1914 (London, 1926),p. 238 Google Scholar; Crihan, , op. cit.,pp. 149-56.Google Scholar

39 Lewery, op. cit., Crihan, op. cit., P. Ol, Foreign Capital in Russia, (Petrograd, 1926) (in Russian); Vanag, N., Finance Capital in Russia to the War (Petrograd, 1922)Google Scholar (in Russian).

40 Moody, , op. cit. (1916), p. 1828.Google Scholar

41 New York Times, October 11, 1917, p. 3, col. 6.

42 The Singer Manufacturing Company appears in Table 8 and not in Table 10 with industrial concerns because it has been impossible to break down the total investment into its components.

43 Crihan, , op. cit., pp. 131, 134-35.Google Scholar

44 The International Harvester Company, p. 147.

45 Lewery, , op. cit., p. 27.Google Scholar

46 Moody, , op. cit. (1915), p. 1218.Google Scholar

47 Crihan, , op. cit., pp. 194-95.Google Scholar

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49 Lewery, , op. cit., p. 27.Google Scholar

50 Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. CII (September 1916).

51 New York Times, July 9, 1917, p. 5, col. I.

52 New York Times, August 27, 1916, p. 8, col. 5.

53 Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1944-1945, Table 893, “Manufactures—Summary: 1849 to 1939,” p.794.

54 See supra, and n. 51.

55 Miller, , op. cit., p. 40.Google Scholar

56 Ibid., p. 115.

57 Ibid., p. 223.

58 See lists of Russian securities held by New York Life, supra, p. 93.

59 The Fitch Record of Government Finances for 1918, (New York, 1918), pp. 332-33, 346.