Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T20:17:55.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CONNECTIONS AND NETWORKS IN SPAIN OF A LONDON MERCHANT-BANKER, 1800-1850*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2013

Manuel Llorca-Jaña
Manuel Llorca-Jaña*
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios de Historia Política (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez). [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper deals with Anglo-Spanish trade and finances for the period c. 1810-1850. It concentrates on the business activities of a London merchant bank (Huth & Co. or Huth) with Spain during this period by paying special attention to the support given by Huth to the many bilateral trades between Spain and Britain in which the company participated. It also focuses on the support given by Huth to much trade in and out of Spanish ports but which did not go through British ports. This overall support included the provision of credit facilities, exchange rate brokerage, insurance services and commercial intelligence. In addition, the article covers the links between Huth and the Spanish crown, thanks to which the bank became an important conduit of Spanish investments in American securities before 1850. Huth was also the paymaster abroad for the Spanish state. In view of Huth's close connections to the Spanish economy during this period, it is perhaps surprising that this is the first study of this «Spanish» house in London.

Resumen

El presente artículo trata sobre las conexiones comerciales y financieras entre España y Gran Bretaña para el período 1810-1850. El mismo se concentra en las actividades de negocio de un mercader banquero con sede principal en Londres (Huth & Co.), y en particular en las relativas al apoyo prestado por el mismo a diversos flujos comerciales entre España y Gran Bretaña. Pero el artículo también brinda atención al suporte brindado a importaciones y exportaciones españolas que no pasaban por puertos británicos. Para estos fines Huth proveía muchos servicios a hombres de negocio en España y otros países, tales como crédito, seguros, e información comercial. Adicionalmente, este ensayo versa sobre los nexos entre Huth y la corona española, gracias a los cuales dicho banquero se convirtió en uno de los principales canales de inversiones españolas en valores financieros en los EEUU antes de 1850. Huth también estaba a cargo de pagar los sueldos en el extranjero de cónsules y diplomáticos españoles. Considerando las conexiones tan cercanas con la economía española durante este período, resulta sorprendente que sea éste el primer estudio sobre ‘casas españolas’ en Londres.

Keywords

Anglo-Spanish tradeAnglo-Spanish financesmerchant-bankers19th centurytransaction costsComercio Anglo-EspañolFinanzas Anglo-Españolascomerciantes-banquerossiglo XIXcostes de transacción

JEL classification

N83: Europe: Pre-1913 N73: Europe: Pre-1913 N23: Europe: Pre-1913
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , December 2013 , pp. 423 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author is grateful to Xabier Lamikiz for comments on an early draft, as well as to two referees of this journal, Xavier Tafunell, C. Ducoing, P. L. Cottrell, M. Carmagnani, H. V. Bowen, H. Klein, Rory Miller, B. Attard, M. Latham, B. Batiz-Lazo, Katharine Wilson, W. Clarence-Smith, and UCL Special Collections. This paper was generously funded by the Chilean Fondecyt (project no. 11100022) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Department of Economics & Business).

References

REFERENCES

Angulo-Morales, A. (2011): «Bilbao, Madrid, Londres. Ganaderos, comerciantes y cambistas vascos en los mercados financieros y laneros del Atlántico», in J. Ocampo (ed.), Empresas y empresarios del Norte de España a fines del Antiguo régimen. Madrid: Marcial Pons, pp. 182-210.Google Scholar
Austin, P. E. (2007): Baring Brothers and the Birth of Modern Finance. London: Pickering & Chatto.Google Scholar
Casson, M. (1998): «The Economic Analysis of Multinational Trading Companies», in G. Jones (ed.), The Multinational Traders. London: Routledge, pp. 22-47.Google Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1977): «The International Houses: The Continental Contribution to British Commerce, 1800-1860». Journal of European Economic History, 6 (1), pp. 5-48.Google Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1979): «British Marketing Enterprise: the Changing Roles of Merchants, Manufacturers, and Financers, 1700-1860». Business History Review, 53 (2), pp. 205-234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1984): The Rise of Merchant Banking. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1992): Merchant Enterprise in Britain. From the Industrial Revolution to World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuenca-Esteban, J. (1981): «Statistics of Spain's Colonial Trade, 1792-1820». Hispanic American Historical Review, 61 (3), pp. 381-428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C. (1987): International Business in the Nineteenth Century. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books.Google Scholar
Jones, C. (2004): «Huth, (John) Frederick Andrew (1777-1864)», Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, G. (1998): «Multinational Trading Companies in History and Theory», in G. Jones (ed.), The Multinational Traders. London: Routledge, pp. 1-21.Google Scholar
Jones, G. (2000): Merchants to Multinationals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fontana-Lazaro, J. (1970): «Colapso y transformaciones del comercio exterior español entre 1792 y 1827». Moneda y Crédito, 115, pp. 3-23.Google Scholar
Freedman, J. R. (1968): «A London merchant banker in Anglo-American Trade and Finance, 1835-1850», PhD Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Jenks, L. H. (1963): The Migration of British Capital to 1875. London: Nelson & Sons.Google Scholar
Kynaston, D. (1995): The City of London, Volume 1, A World of its Own: 1815-1890. London: Pimlico.Google Scholar
Lamikiz, X. (2010): Trade and Trust in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. London: The Boydell Press.Google Scholar
Llorca-Jaña, M. (2013): «Entrepreneurs Shaping Globalization in the Early Nineteenth Century: the Experience of London Merchant-Bankers». Business History Review 87(4).Google Scholar
López-Morell, M. A. (2005): La Casa Rothschild en España. Madrid: Marcial Pons.Google Scholar
McGrane, R. C. (1935): Foreign Bondholders and American States Debt. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Murray, A. (1970): Home From the Hill. A Biography of Frederick Huth. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
Perkins, E. J. (1975): Financing Anglo-American Trade: the House of Brown, 1800-1880. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platt, T. (2011): «‘Spanish Quicksilver’: A Preliminary Note». The Rothschild Archive Review of the Year, pp. 38-48.Google Scholar
Platt, T. (2012): «Container Transport: From Skin Bags to Iron Flasks. Changing Technologies of Quicksilver Packaging Between Almadén and America, 1788-1848». Past & Present, 214 (1), pp. 205-253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons-Pons, J. (2012): «Spain: international influence on the domestic insurance market», in P. Borscheid and N. V. Haueter (eds), World insurance: the evolution of a global risk network. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 189-212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1982a): Comercio exterior y crecimiento económico en España, 1826-1913. Madrid: Banco de España.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1982b): «Comercio exterior y cambio económico en España, 1792-1849», in J. Fontana (ed.), La economía española al final del antiguo regimen, III, Comercio y colonias. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, pp. 171-249.Google Scholar
Prados de la, E. L.Tortella, G. (1983): «Tendencias a largo plazo del comercio exterior Español, 1714-1913». Revista de Historia Económica, 1 (2), pp. 353-367.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1984): «El comercio hispano-británico en los siglos XVIII y XIX. I. Reconstruccion».. Revista de Historia Económica,, 2 (2), pp. 113-162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1985): «Las relaciones reales de intercambio entre España y Gran Bretaña durante los siglos XVIII y XIX», in P. Martin Aceña, and L. Prados de la Escosura (eds), La nueva historia economica en España. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1986): «Una serie anual de comercio exterior español, 1821-1913». Revista de Historia Económica, 4 (1) pp. 103-150.Google Scholar
Roberts, R. (1992): Schroders: Merchants and Bankers. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, R. (1993): «What's in a Name?». Business History, 35 (3), pp. 22-38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wake, J. (1997): Kleinwort Benson: the History of Two Families in Banking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar