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Has there ever been an Evil bank manager type situation in real history.

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lad

lad

First Lieutenant
On Probation
Apr 3, 2018
243
4
https://store.steampowered.com/app/896160/Evil_Bank_Manager/

So I have a quick question. I am on android .

Evil bank manager is an awesome game .
Has there ever been an Evil bank manager type situation in real history where a kingdom or empire is secretly controlled by bankers and moneylenders

Except for Florence and northern Italy.
 
Slightly cynically, the Roman republic.

After all, for example, Crassus became one of the triumvirate largely through his ability to loan senators vast sums of money. The Res Publica demanded the expenditure of truly colossal sums of money at the early stages of a senators career, which would (hopefully) be redeemed once he got a province to exploit. Many of the wars that drove Rome's expansion were partly due to Roman senators invading neighbouring kingdoms on a pretext, so they could finance their loans. So while it was not actually run by bankers, they had a huge and ongoing role in both Rome's internal and external politics.
 
Not really a banker thing (just like Crassus technically wasn't) but shark businessman mentality was quite common in the late republic and ridiculous use of usury loan is (one) of the cause of the destruction of the farmer-citizen class and created a vast amount of poor often unemployed (and thus angry) strata of citizens.

That plus Marius' reforms (due to the collapse of aforementionned class) created the condition for the popular Populare faction to gain support and eventually overthrow the Republic.
 
There are obviously loads of mad conspiracy theories from all through history that propose this for all sorts of regimes. But these are obviously best avoided.

On a more serious level, there was a very influential theory proposed by Peter Cain and A. G. Hopkins that British imperial expansion and policy (especially from the mid-19th century onwards) was largely driven by "gentlemanly capitalism" and financial interests emanating from the south-east of England and City of London. But it's a bit more complicated and structural than "Bankers secretly controlled the empire!"
 
Isn't this what the Rothschild family conspiracies are about?
 
Well, not a banker or a moneylender in this case, but an American corporation. The United Fruit Company traded in tropical fruits grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. Having the dominance in international fruit trade in certain regions the United Fruit Company maintained full monopoly and growing its influence in the local economies resulted in the banana republics. Controlled by an American corporation these countries became politically unstable and fully dependent on the exportation of the bananas and other tropical fruits by the United Fruit Company.
 
The fuggers? They made Charles the 5th holy roman emperor. Or was that the northern Italy situation you were referring to, even though they were austrian?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugger

Ulrich's youngest brother Jakob Fugger, born in 1459, was to become the most famous member of the dynasty. In 1498 he married Sibylla Artzt, Grand Burgheress to Augsburg, the daughter of an eminent Grand Burgher of Augsburg (German Großbürger zu Augsburg). They had no children, but this marriage gave Jakob the opportunity to elevate to Grand Burgher of Augsburg and later allowed him to pursue a seat on the city council (Stadtrat) of Augsburg. He was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511, made Imperial Count in 1514, and in 1519 led a consortium of German and Italian businessmen that loaned Charles V 850,000 florins (about 95,625 oz(t) of gold) to procure his election as Holy Roman Emperor over Francis I of France.[5] The Fuggers' contribution was 543,000 florins.

In 1494, the Fuggers established their first public company. Jakob's aim was to establish a copper monopoly by opening foundries in Hohenkirchen and Fuggerau (named for the family, in Carinthia) and by expanding the sales organization in Europe, especially the Antwerpagency. Jakob leased the copper mines in Neusohl (Besztercebánya, today Banská Bystrica, Slovakia) in 1495, eventually making them the greatest mining centre of the time.
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Isn't there an economic theory of Sparta that assigns the rich lending widows' control over the state?
 
Wilhelmine Germany and its extremely cartelised industrial sector?
 
lad said:
Has there ever been an Evil bank manager type situation in real history where a kingdom or empire is secretly controlled by bankers and moneylenders
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All the western world nowadays?
 
SirNat said:
PE has been the best development within finance over the past 50 years.
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Doesn't mean that management compensation should be treated as capital gains.
 
Yakman said:
Doesn't mean that management compensation should be treated as capital gains.
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Under the eyes of the law they are risking their own capital and hence proceeds will be treated as capital gains.

In the UK carry is taxed at 28% which is a fair compromise in my opinion. The benefits of PE for tax structures are also being slowly eroded away over time anyway - e.g. corporate interest restriction.
 
Zemurray.jpg

Samuel Zemurray

Samuel Zemurray was born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire in 1877, in his youths he emigrated America with his family. Later on he was a very successful businessman and an influential person in Central America because of his personal wealth and fortune which he had made founding the Cuyamel Fruit (rival of the United Fruit Company) and making banana trade.

In the late nineteenth century Honduras was facing hard financial crisis. The nation granted land and substantial exemptions to US based companies, for instance the Cuyamel Fruit and Zemurray in exchange for developing the country's struggling economy and infrastructure. But this had almost an opposite effect. It created an enclaved economy, led by the US based companies, controlling the infrastructure and creating self-sufficient regions with tax-exemptions they did very little for the economic growth.

During this same time the US bankers, J.P. Morgan and Company for instance were controlling their interests in Honduras and sitting in the country's custom houses to collect taxes to ensure Honduras to pay its sovereign debt. Due to these financial crisis the Honduran president, Manuel Bonilla was living in exile. Cuyamel Fruit and Samuel Zemurray feared that the company would be taxed out of business under the American supervision and Zemurray contacted Bonilla with a plan to overthrow the current government. Zemurray smuggled Bonilla back to Honduras and in a military coup Bonilla returned to power.

In return Cuyamel Fruit was granted with land concessions and low taxes. Zemurray secured his position in Honduran politics with growing influence and Cuyamel Fruit was able to retain and continue practicing the enclaved economy only with egoistic intentions.
 
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