Trends and Strategies of International Banks

The Netherlands was the leading technological country as measured by productivity and growth rates from the the early 18th century until the early 19th century. Thereafter the United Kingdom emerged as the leading technological country until the late 19th century when the United States assumed this status. In the 19th and early 20th centuries international banking was dominated by European banks, especially British and French banks and the United Kingdom and France were net creditors. American and Japanese banks were restricted from branching abroad and Germany only became unified in the late 19th century. Swiss banks were internationalised though they had few foreign branches. One of the most important innovations in technology that influenced banking was the telegraph which linked the financial centres and the periphery. The introduction of commercial satellite in the 1960s had an analogous, though much wider, effect on the banking industry and financial markets.