Imperial designs: the Royal Bank of Canada in the Caribbean

Canada's role in international affairs is generally cast in a favourable light, especially in contrast with the United States. Yet at the beginning of the twentieth century there was a brief period of imperialist rhetoric among the Canadian business elite, the bankers of Toronto and Montreal in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Race & class 2010-07, Vol.52 (1), p.33-48
Main Author:	Hudson, Peter James
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	20th century Banking British Empire Business Canada Caribbean Economic elites Economic history Economic Policy Elites Empires Expansionism Foreign banks Foreign policy Historians Ideology Imperialism International economic relations International political economy International trade Markets Morality Neocolonialism Rhetoric Trade Trade policy Trinidad and Tobago United Kingdom
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Summary:	Canada's role in international affairs is generally cast in a favourable light, especially in contrast with the United States. Yet at the beginning of the twentieth century there was a brief period of imperialist rhetoric among the Canadian business elite, the bankers of Toronto and Montreal in particular, who argued the benefits of an annexationist policy for the British West Indies to complement their deepening financial links to the Caribbean region. Focusing on the Royal Bank of Canada, this essay examines this episode in Canadian foreign policy by recounting the history of Canadian banking expansion in the Caribbean while demonstrating the connections between economic and trade policy and the ideologies of Canadian Anglo-Saxonism that shaped the Canadian financial elite's vision of its role in maintaining the integrity of the British empire. It argues that, rather than being mere 'surrogates' to American empire, as Canadian business historians have argued, Canadian bankers were aggressive, active and independent players in the conquest of foreign markets.
ISSN:	0306-3968 1741-3125