On the History and Historiography of Banking in the Caribbean Available to Purchase

Although the historical impact of banking and financial institutions on the formation of the contemporary Caribbean has been profound and pervasive, the historical writing on banking and finance in the Caribbean has largely been neglected and marginalized. This essay explores the reasons behind this historiographical neglect while surveying the history of banking in the Caribbean across five hundred years and four overlapping eras—the prebanking era, the colonial era, the nationalist era, and the era of denationalization. It concludes with a consideration of recent approaches to, and a call for additional critical interdisciplinary studies of, the history of banking in the Caribbean.