Banco Comercial y Agrícola (Ecuador)

Banco Comercial y Agrícola (Ecuador), a leading financial institution from 1895 to 1926, located in the prosperous port of Guayaquil, the nation's commercial center. The bank handled much of the proceeds from coastal Ecuador's successful cacao export trade. The governing Liberal Party's (1895–1944) heavy borrowing, however, dangerously depleted bank reserves, leaving currency issues improperly backed. Highland critics of the Liberal Party objected to the emerging close relationship between government and the bank. Criticism grew more urgent after the economic collapse of 1922. Following a 1925 coup by young military officers, the government closed the Banco Comercial y Agrícola and created a new central bank. Some historical interpretations depict 1895–1925 as an era of "bank rule" over Ecuador.

See alsoUrvina Jado, Francisco .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best treatment of fiscal and monetary issues is Linda Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Regional Politics and Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830–1940 (1985). For the broader political economic context see Osvaldo Hurtado, Political Power in Ecuador, translated by Nick D. Mills, Jr. (1985). Detailed discussion of banking can be found in Julio Estrada Ycaza, Los bancos del siglo XIX (1976). The socioeconomic context is analyzed in the pathbreaking study by Lois Crawford De Roberts, El Ecuador en la época cacaotera (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Pineo, Ronn F. Social and Economic Reform in Ecuador: Life and Work in Guayaquil. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.

                                    Ronn F. Pineo