FINANCE AND CREDITS 289 
been a potent factor in developing and con 
trolling business along British channels. Fol 
lowing the pioneer move of this corporation, 
other institutions were organized in England, 
until to-day the amount of British capital in 
vested in banks in all of Latin America is close 
to $500,000,000. 
Realizing the benefits to be derived from 
such monetary connections in these countries 
and knowing that a bank’s co-operation meant 
much to both the buyer and seller and formed 
perhaps the strongest link in the chain of for 
eign commerce with which they hoped to 
girdle the world, Germany followed in the 
footsteps of England and opened a similar 
series of institutions in the same territories, 
even going so far as to have branches in Eng 
land, knowing the decided preference for 
“bills on London.” Through their offices in 
the English capital, they succeeded in keeping 
as much as possible of the business they ac 
quired abroad in their own hands, reaping all 
possible profit from every transaction. In 
their turn, and as their foreign trade de