Our database holds more than 600 tables that can be downloaded in a spreadsheet format. These statistics on banking and finance are rooted in the tables and series published in a handful of works authored by reputed researchers and economic history who are professors of top flight universities in Latin America, the United States and Europe: we have put these materials into Excell formats to facilitate consultation. We also include historical series collected and published by official agencies —National Institutes of Statistics and Central Banks; they include information covering a time span that goes from the early nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth; (in some cases the series continue up to the new millennium). For now, the visitor may consult a database comprising mainly (but not exclusively) information on banking and financial statistics of Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina; we are currently working on strengthening our offer regarding other countries of the region, especially Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
Despite these series being circumscribed to the history of banking, the themes they include are varied: they include general price level indicators, exchange and interest rates as well as specific data on the banking sector in different countries and time periods. We offer some existing macroeconomic series on money issue (monetary base) but also microeconomic information from individual banks (balance sheets and other accounting records) a large part from the age of plurality of issue as, it should be recalled that Central Banking began in Latin America only from the 1920s.
The more than 200 academic documents that we offer in this site —published articles, working papers and conference transcriptions— are by respected researchers and professors of economic history of top flight universities and research centers of Latin America, the United States and Europe. The collection of materials is based on what has been published by prestigious academic journals on both sides of the Atlantic; we have been careful to credit all of them by offering links to the original repositories where the documents can be found and by subscribing the same creative commons license that once transformed these documents into public domain material.
We hold these Documents in a PDF format that can be either downloaded or pre-visualized. The general subject is that of banking history of most Latin American countries. These works are catalogued in 11 broad and general themes that we plan to further broaden as the repository keeps improving and expanding; thy comprise: finance of the ancien regime, the history of Credit, Monetary Policy and Banking Systems, Central Banks, Development Banks, National Banks, Foreign Banks, Regional and Local Banks, Financial and Banking Crises, Primary Sources and Archives.
Our thematic pages constitute the core of what is projected as a virtual museum, a sub-site aimed to promote banking history in broader audiences. We offer thematic pages on the history of banks and banking in some major Latin American countries; here the user can find monographs, bibliography, synthetic information (of qualitative and quantitative nature) and download material regarding their specific country of interest (example: Brazil); it is planned not only to expand the list of nations and national’s histories, but also to create pages with different topics (for example, our Mexican banknotes collection), a duty that is yet to be fulfilled by the national experts for each country or punctual field, most of them members of our Editorial Board.
It is our goal to offer a collection of primary sources for research on banking history; several antique documents can be downloaded here, they come from specialized libraries and archive institutions. We believe in the construction of a Digital Library or Repository of classic bibliography and archival material such as original accounting papers, acts, contracts, statutes, and a specialized, financial, newspaper and periodical library. This is an ongoing project and is under development with the guidance of our Editorial Board and Academic Council.
We offer a list of experts and their contact information; this intends to present an overview of the main researchers in the field, their area of expertise and the university or think-tank where they develop their professional activities. The purpose of the list is both to encourage communication and collaboration within the field and also to recognize and promote the individuals and their work.
It is intended to improve our Teaching section and offer more useful material for students and college members; here the user can download presentations and videos of conferences and lectures. Among other projects in this realm, a course syllabus is to be suggested by our Academic Council.
It is intended to offer a section with a comprehensive guide to archival collections of banks and banking related institutions in Latin America and Spain. For the moment, the user can find a source of information for researchers and students interested in archive material in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, in the form of a specialized article by Carlos Marichal originally published by Harvard (BHR series) and now presented in a digital guide format.