“<i>Monetary Authorities</i> is a stringent, riveting account of the important role of currency controls in the expansion of US imperial rule and racial capitalism. Allan E. S. Lumba’s work incisively details how currency stabilization, economic security, financial regulation, and fiscal discipline are key normative instruments of racial subjugation, political pacification, and counter-decolonization. A crucial, powerful intervention reminding us of the politics of everyday transactions at the level of small change.” - Neferti X. M. Tadiar, author of (Remaindered Life) "Given the significance of the topic, Lumba’s book is an important contribution to the scholarly work on Philippine history, economic and business history, and the history of foreign capital and currencies. It gives us a deeper understanding of the economic underpinnings of various Philippine historical epochs and makes us reflect on the lasting impacts of the US colonial project that continues to haunt Philippine society today." - Katherine G. Lacson (Pacific Affairs) "This book would be an excellent addition to seminars that examine US empire in Asia or address the history of money and banking on a global scale. In fact, Lumba’s book shows how we can no longer understand monetary authority and capitalist rule without considering how such authority has been secured by experiments in the colonies." - Allison Truitt (Journal of Asian Studies) “[<i>Monetary Authorities</i>] is a clear-sighted, archivally rich, and erudite account of how imperial logic defined the birth of modern economic thinking in the Philippines and the US.” - Lisandro E. Claudio (Philippine Studies)

In Monetary Authorities Allan E. S. Lumba explores how the United States used monetary policy and banking systems to justify racial and class hierarchies, enforce capitalist exploitation, and counter movements for decolonization in the American colonial Philippines. Lumba shows that colonial economic experts justified American imperial authority by claiming that Filipinos did not possess the racial capacities to properly manage money. Financial independence, then, became a key metric of racial capitalism by which Filipinos had to prove their ability to self-govern. At the same time, the colonial state used its monetary authority to police the economic activities of colonized subjects and to curb movements for decolonization. It later offered a conditional form of decolonization that left the Philippines reliant on U.S. financial institutions. By showing how imperial governance was entwined with the racialization and regulation of monetary systems in the Philippines, Lumba illuminates a key mechanism through which the United States securitized the imperial world order.
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Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction: Monetary Authority  1
1. The Wealth of Colonies  12
2. Mongrel Currencies  40
3. Bad Money  67
4. An Orgy of Mismanagement  94
5. Under Common Wealth  119
Conclusion: Decolonization  147
Notes  155
Bibliography  191
Index  207
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Product details

ISBN
9781478015550
Published
2022-05-20
Publisher
Duke University Press
Weight
476 gr
Height
229 mm
Width
152 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
232

Biographical note

Allan E. S. Lumba is Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Tech.