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This book is a study of the capital transfers to the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, for the latter decades of that period, of the transfers from the United States to the rest of the world - particularly Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. It provides quantitative estimates of the level and industrial composition of those transfers and qualitative descriptions of the sources and uses of those funds, and it attempts to assess the role of those foreign transfers on the economic development of the recipient economies. In the process, it provides an analysis of the symbiotic relationship between the New York and London stock exchanges and of the evolution of the American domestic capital market. The work explains the centrality of foreign capital's role in American economic development, despite the high level of domestic savings. Finally, it explores the issue of domestic political response to foreign investment, attempting to explain why given the obvious benefits of such investment, the political reaction was so negative and so intense in Latin America and in the American West, but so positive in Canada and the eastern United States.
List of contents
1. The international flow of finance: an overview; Introduction; Net flows of capital; 2. The sources and uses of foreign capital; The sources and the industrial disposition of foreign capital: the quantitative evidence; The sources and the industrial disposition of foreign capital: the qualitative evidence; a) 1803-40; b) 1840-1914: railroads; c) 1840-1914: government securities; d) 1840-1914: land-related investments; e) 1840-1914: commerce and manufacturing; 3. The economic, social, and political response to foreign investment in the United States; The American response; The response of foreign investors; 4. Two securities markets: London and New York; The London and New York Stock Exchanges in the late 19th century; The American domestic capital market and the demand for foreign capital; 5. American investments abroad; Introduction; The early years: 1797-1896; Towards maturity: 1897-1914; 6. Summary and conclusions.
Summary
This book examines the economic and political impact of foreign investment in the United States and of American investment abroad. It provides quantitative estimates of the the level and industrial composition of those transfers, and analyses the evolution of the American domestic capital market.
