Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Charts, Tables and Figures
- Nomenclature
- Chronology
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 Growth of Confidence (1763–1828)
- 2 Opportunity and System (1828–30)
- 3 Good Timing (1830–2)
- 4 Silver Linings (1832–4)
- 5 Changing Too Soon (1835–6)
- 6 Barings Alone (1837–9)
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: Argentina and Singapore (1890, 1995)
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Opportunity and System (1828–30)
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Charts, Tables and Figures
- Nomenclature
- Chronology
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 Growth of Confidence (1763–1828)
- 2 Opportunity and System (1828–30)
- 3 Good Timing (1830–2)
- 4 Silver Linings (1832–4)
- 5 Changing Too Soon (1835–6)
- 6 Barings Alone (1837–9)
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: Argentina and Singapore (1890, 1995)
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It seems that the long years of experience in the international trade of the United States is yielding something of worth. Perhaps this new opportunity as partner in the House of Baring Brothers and Co. will grant me the means and respectability to use some of what I have gathered over the past years.
Joshua BatesCredits are the great steam power, the great railroads of commerce. The difficulty is to make them safe.
Thomas Wren WardWhen the new partnership decided to recommit the House to the United States trade, it did so after a period of sluggish profits and little growth in its capital base. In 1828, commission and acceptance income were half the levels of 1825. The profit and loss account – including expenses from all parts of the business – remained positive but erratic, with firm-wide profits failing to increase year over year until the early 1830s.
Barings’ expansion in the United States was not unusual. The other six so-called ‘American Houses’ were also doing so aggressively. In 1828 in fact, Joshua Bates reported during a brief trip to the United States that he had counted thirty-five agents from different parts of Europe in New York City alone. The United States was attractive for many reasons to British businessmen. It could serve as a haven from the problems of Europe, or as a diversifier for a firm looking to add another market to an existing portfolio.
Alexander was a cautious man who hired carefully for the firm his father had all but founded. Barings headed back to the United States amidst great changes in the Anglo-American trade and investment environment. The new men in management felt compelled to develop rules in the late 1820s so they would not incur injury – always remembering the irregularities the firm had encountered before they came on board.
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- Baring Brothers and the Birth of Modern Finance , pp. 29 - 50Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014