Colombian Issues Printed Abroad
During the boom of private and free banking, Colombian capital did not stop at the country’s borders: Colombian investors and bankers founded and sustained issuing banks in other nations of the region, whose banknotes today document a little-known chapter of Colombia’s banking history abroad.
Colombian Capital Beyond the Borders
At the end of the nineteenth century, while free banking transformed Colombia’s financial landscape with dozens of regional issuers, some of those same private capitals sought opportunities outside the country. Central America, with its own economies in formation and little local banking infrastructure, proved a natural destination for Colombian investors experienced in the issue and administration of paper money.
These banks operated under the laws of the host country and issued notes in the local currency —not in Colombian pesos— but they kept their link to Colombia through their founders, shareholders and, in many cases, their own name. They are cataloged here separately from Colombia’s domestic free banking, precisely because their paper money never circulated within the national territory.
