The beginning of comercial banking in Puerto Rico: The Commercial Credit Company Ltd, 1877-1888

Authors

  • Joaquim Cuevas Casaña
  • Ángel Pascual Martínez Soto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/rhi.v25i62.21336

Keywords:

Banking history, Latin American and Caribbean-Puerto Rico, business history, financial history

Abstract

This paper analyses the delayed development of banking and finances on the island of Puerto Rico during its last years as a colony under Spanish dominion. Financial backwardness was reflected in the problems involving currency and in the lack of an issuing bank. The reasons that are defended here are the inefficient administration of the colony and the economic interests of the Spanish trading elite on the island. The change in circumstances that came about in the 1870s –namely, the abolition of slavery and the international economic crisis– led to a change of attitude among the stakeholders and to the founding of the first commercial bank, the Sociedad Anónima de Crédito Mercantil (Commercial Credit Company Ltd.), in 1877. This study examines its early years of operation as a significant case.

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Published

2018-01-30

How to Cite

Cuevas Casaña, Joaquim, and Ángel Pascual Martínez Soto. 2018. “The Beginning of Comercial Banking in Puerto Rico: The Commercial Credit Company Ltd, 1877-1888”. Revista De Historia Industrial — Industrial History Review 25 (62):13-46. https://doi.org/10.1344/rhi.v25i62.21336.

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Articles