A particular challenge of edited volumes is keeping contributors to a common theme, so that readers can reach their own conclusions, while individual chapters offer sufficient variety as to be interesting when read as stand-alone publications. Most often, it is the latter that predominates, with contributors only paying lip service to the main theme. In this edited book, however, Michel Lescure and colleagues managed to deliver the right balance.
As suggested by the title, the main theme is a long-term view as to how a particular combination of strategy, regulation, corporate governance, and industrial organization enabled successful banks to prosper. This theme tackles head on the fact that, but for a handful of firms such as DuPont, it is largely financial service institutions that can trace the roots of their establishment to earlier than 1850. A combination of regulation and attitudes to competition throughout the twentieth century helps in that longevity. And although different forms of deposit-accepting financial institutions are mentioned (including cooperative banks, savings banks, and Raiffeisen banks), each chapter focuses on the origins and long-term performance of two to four of the largest commercial banks in today's economy.
After the acknowledgments and introduction, each of the twelve chapters maps to a single country. Each chapter was written by a leading native banking historian, while Lescure authored the introduction, the chapter on France, and the conclusion. The book also offers two indexes: one of financial institutions and associations; the other of notable people (bankers and policymakers). For some reason, a section offering brief biographies of the authors is missing. Only two of the chapters appear to be built on original empirical research—the others provide a reinterpretation of extant literature. On the one hand, this opens domestic debates and contributions otherwise inaccessible to an English-only audience. But on the other hand, the editor could have done more to prompt authors to consider and link their discussion to relevant publications in international outlets.
Sidestepping the definition of a bank, Lescure's introduction is a superb summary of the state of the debates informed by a long-term view of the industrial organization of banking. I cannot think of an important contributor who is missing from this survey.
Following the introduction, and with the exceptions of Richard Sylla on the United States and Makoto Kasuya on Japan, contributors are primarily European and are writing about large western European economies: Mats Larsson on Sweden, Sverre Knutsen on Norway, Carlo Brambilla and Giuseppe Conti on Italy, Carles Sudriá on Spain, Joos Dankers on the Netherlands, Youseff Cassis on Britain, Malik Mazbouri on Switzerland, and the late Chris Kobrak on Germany (in order of appearance).
Most chapters begin in the mid- to late nineteenth century and end in the early twenty-first century. As mentioned, each chapter then focuses on two to four large banks and explains how their strategy and corporate governance responded to internal and external shocks. These included general changes in the economy, regulation, as well as establishing events and motivations leading to mergers and acquisitions.
Overall, this thought-provoking book invites research on similar phenomena in eastern Europe, Latin America, the Arabian Gulf, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia: for instance, some consideration of developments in eastern Europe encompassing both capitalist countries (such as Austria and Greece) and former socialist countries (such as Poland and Russia) before, during, and after the advent and fall of the Soviet Union and other socialist economies. Its format could also be replicated to explore other relevant themes that have impacted the management and long-term performance of banks, such as the advent of digital computers and automation, gender, ethnicity, labor relations, changes in distribution channels, markets for derivatives, securitization, shadow banking, and the challenges to marketing of financial services, to name but a few. The format is also amenable to showcasing the work of promising young scholars, “hot topics,” alternative methods, potential contributions of business history to cognate areas, or seldom explored genres in business history.
In short, this is one of the few edited books I can recall having read cover to cover. It provides a fresh look at established domestic debates while summarizing the development of the commercial banking industry throughout different countries. This is a “must read,” even for the seasoned scholar. Individual chapters can certainly be very helpful in teaching graduates and postgraduates as an authoritative introduction to the long-term dynamics of commercial banking.
