8. Merchant Bankers, Banking Houses and Large National Banks. The Case of Jaen Province (1800–1936)

During the nineteenth century, private banking activity was developed in Spain by two types of agents: on the one hand, entities constituted under individual form or, on occasion, as collective or limited partnerships, such as bankers, merchant bankers and banking houses; and on the other, those organised in the form of a public limited company, such as banks and credit companies. However, in the province of Jaen, the financial sector did not follow the same consolidation pattern as other areas of the country. During the nineteenth century, in this territory there was no bank in the form of a Company. Therefore the financial needs of the population were covered by private bankers and small family banking houses. The objective of this chapter is to study this peculiar configuration.