The globalization of merchant banking before 1850: the case of Huth & Co

London merchant bankers emerged during the 1820s in the wake of financial turmoil caused by the wars of American Independence, the Napoleonic campaigns and the Anglo-American war of 1812.

Though the majority of merchant bankers remained cautious in their affairs, Huth & Co established an impressive global network of trade and lending, dealing with over 6,000 correspondents in more than seventy countries.

Based on archival research, this comparative study provides a new chronology of early nineteenth-century commercial and financial expansion.