Customer Reviews

Banking on Global Markets: Deutsche Bank and the United States, 1870 to the Present (Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise)

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Globalisation is not a new thing, as Kobrak reminds us in this authoritative and readable monograph. In the 19th and 20th centuries, as the US rose to prominence, it often required external capital to develop a virgin continent. Deutsche Bank was one of the financiers, that provided this capital.

The narrative describes long ago travails. Of investments that did well and others that went totally bankrupt. In the midst of much of this was Deutsche Bank, who typically provided loans for infrastructure. Notably the railroads that would span the United States. One railroad, Northern Pacific, gets an entire chapter, delineating how it fell on hard times.

The 20th century also brought with it 2 world wars. In which the bank was on the other side for both. But now, at least during peacetime, capital often flowed from the US to Europe. Being versatile, the bank found much business here, facilitating this flow.

Granted, in places, the book makes for dry reading. But fans of history and economics should still like the story.