Sísifo en España: doscientos años de banca francesa (c.1800-c.2000)

With unpublished sources, this paper draws the evolution of French banking in Spain between 1800 and 2000 and shows how French banks operated in the country, seeking, once and again, to consolidate business positions in a more and more difficult market. As the oldest foreign bank presence in the country, French banks strongly dominated the Spanish market in the 19th century. The turn of the 20th century and the Spanish economic evolution meant a sort of hibernation for French banks. They only did with it in the middle of the fifties. The second half of the 20th means for French banking the search of a place in the difficult Spanish bank market. Following the legislation and economy evolution, French banks diversified their financial supply in the sixties, lent capitals in the seventies and the eighties, and tried to compete with Spanish commercial banks in the nineties. Its evolution, for almost one hundred and fifty years, allows us to analyze an episode of foreign direct investment (FDI), focused, in this occasion, in transnational banking. This paper tries to contribute in the debate about persistent and changing patterns of FDI in a host country in the long run.