Amazon.com description: Product Description: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries industrialization swept the less developed countries of Europe. To a previously unknown extent this revolution was planned and financed by both state-owned central banks and commercial orgainzations. The process of industrialization was controlled by bankers seeking to expand the wealth and influence of their corporations and nation states, rather than following the relatively undirected path of development in Britain, Western Europe and North American. Further the 20th century experience in Europe's "periphery" was heavily influenced by foreign investment - the already wealthy states playing a crucial part in the changing economic life of their neighbours. This book is an authoritative review of the process during its peak. It brings together work being done all over Europe to present a detailed picture of the role of domestic and overseas banks in the conversion of agricultural and merchant societies to modern manufacturing states.