The defence of cosmopolitan capitalism by Sir Charles Addis, 1914-1919: A microhistorical study of a classical liberal banker in wartime



Smith, Andrew ORCID: 0000-0002-8589-7608 and Umemura, Maki
(2022) The defence of cosmopolitan capitalism by Sir Charles Addis, 1914-1919: A microhistorical study of a classical liberal banker in wartime. Business History, 64 (9). pp. 1666-1683.

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Abstract

This study focuses on the efforts of Sir Charles Addis to defend the pre-1914 system of cosmopolitan capitalism. Our central research question is to understand why this merchant banker fought in preserve cosmopolitan capitalism when so many of his peers acquiesced in and even championed its demise. Addis’s moral ideal was an international economic order in which the nationality of firms was irrelevant to the strategies of managers. The First World War dramatically increased the salience of firm nationality in international business. Addis, who was a committed classical liberal, fought against this trend to a degree that is hard to explain with reference to economic self-interest alone. The article, which is based on a range of sources including Addis’s diary, explores Addis’s connections to, and views of, ‘German’ bankers, his relations with the British government, and the political economy of the reparations imposed on Germany by the Versailles Peace settlement.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: First World War, banking, HSBC, economic nationalism, firm nationality
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 20 Jul 2020 08:02
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 23:40
DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1726891
Open Access URL: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/132405
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3094372