Overview
- Examines the inner workings of how the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was financed
- Illuminates the role of early financiers and private finance in the creation of a global financial system
- Provides a comprehensive account of the various individuals, banks and countries involved in the Louisiana Purchase
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance (PSHF)
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Keywords
- Louisiana Purchase
- French Revolutionary Wars
- Napoleonic Wars
- Truce of Amiens
- European Association
- The Northbrook Business Papers
- Alexander Baring
- Pierre Cesar Labouchere
- Barings Archive
- US securities markets
- American financial history
- Bank of the United States
About this book
This book provides a comprehensive account of how the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was financed. Where existing research has focused predominantly on the political and diplomatic significance of the Purchase, this book demonstrates the importance of the Purchase to global financial history.
The book provides context and background for the Louisiana Purchase and examines the role of key actors and companies, focusing particularly on the ‘forgotten financiers’ of the Purchase – individuals from the US, France and the UK including Alexander Baring, Albert Gallatin, Pierre Cesar Labouchere and Francois Barbe-Marbois. Based on extensive, original archival research, the chapters will illuminate the role played by these individuals in bringing about financial innovation and facilitating a major transaction that doubled the size of the original United States and helped set the country on a path to global power. The book will be a valuable resource for historians of Europe and America, particularly those with interests in economic and financial history, as well as banking and finance scholars who are interested in the emergence of large-scale international finance in the 19th century.
Reviews
“The Louisiana Purchase is mostly remembered for the political acumen of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon’s pragmatism. This book shows that the grand bargain to double the size of the US depended on the financial engineering of two European merchant bankers. The bankers initiated a deal that avoided confrontation between the US and France and circumvented Britain’s opposition. Perhaps this is why Jefferson stated that banks “are more dangerous than standing armies.” (Rui Esteves, Professor, Geneva Graduate Institute)
“When Napoleon in 1803 offered to sell France’s territorial claims in North America, the young United States did not have the money to buy. But it had something equally important: credit in the world of international finance. Neal’s splendid contribution to financial history reveals how two enterprising European bankers used U.S. creditworthiness to structure the deal and arrange the financing that allowed the United States to double its territory and become a rising global power.” (Richard Sylla, New York University)
“A complete reversal of what we thought we knew about the Louisiana purchase. As Professor Neal shows in this tour de maître, the financiers who masterminded the purchase did not ‘arrange it’. They were really the puppeteers of the whole act.” (Marc Flandreau, Howard S. Marks Professor of Economic History at University of Pennsylvania)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Larry Neal is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Fellow of the Cliometrics Society.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Forgotten Financiers of the Louisiana Purchase
Book Subtitle: European Bankers, the US, and the Rise of International Finance
Authors: Larry Neal
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-56276-1Due: 05 June 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-56279-2Due: 05 June 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-56277-8Due: 05 June 2024
Series ISSN: 2662-5164
Series E-ISSN: 2662-5172
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 251
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 16 illustrations in colour