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Networks and financial war: the brothers Warburg in the first age of globalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

Harold James
Harold James*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
*
H. James, Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 218 Dickinson Hall, Princeton, NJ08544-1013, USA; email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article examines the geo-economic consequences of the financial panic of October 1907. The vulnerability of the United States, but also of Germany, contrasted with the absence of a crisis in Great Britain. The experience showed the fast-growing industrial powers the desirability of mobilizing financial power, and the article examines the contributions of two influential brothers, Max and Paul Warburg, on different sides of the Atlantic. The discussion led to the establishment of a central bank in the United States and institutional improvements in German central banking: in both cases security as well as economic considerations played a substantial role.

Keywords

globalizationfinancial crisiscentral banksacceptance market

JEL classification

N41: U.S. • Canada: Pre-1913 N21: U.S. • Canada: Pre-1913 N43: Europe: Pre-1913 N23: Europe: Pre-1913
Type
Articles
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 27 , Special Issue 3: Finance, financiers and financial centres: a special issue in honour of Youssef Cassis , December 2020 , pp. 303 - 318
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Association for Banking and Financial History

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Footnotes

I should like to thank Martin Daunton for helpful comments.

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The New York TimesGoogle Scholar
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Stiftung Warburg ArchiveGoogle Scholar

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