Debt and Imperialism in the Mediterranean

Tracing the bankruptcies and subsequent financial receiverships of Mediterranean countries, this book examines sovereign debt crises during the classical era of imperialism leading up to the First World War.

Focusing on the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Tunisia, and Greece, the book aims to highlight the political, diplomatic, and economic history of public debt management and the operation of international financial commissions in countries situated on the semi-periphery of the capitalist world-economy. The speculative activities of numerous local and international banks and financiers, the aggressive imperial expansion of the Great Powers, and the reliance of many Mediterranean states on European capital markets — combined with the mismanagement and misadministration of foreign capital inflows — generated severe financial defaults. These crises, in turn, paved the way for European intervention and the establishment of foreign-controlled international administrations in defaulting countries. Within this broader Mediterranean context, embedded in the dynamics of the global financial system, European powers and capitalist elites were able to leverage credit and debt to advance invasive political and financial interventions characteristic of imperialist domination.

This book will be of interest to readers of studies of global capitalism, imperial history, and modern Middle Eastern and European history more broadly.