This book describes and explains the long-term dynamics of Third World debt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on the various specific historical patterns of foreign loans, financial crises, and debt settlements between 1820 and 1990.

Suter, Christian

Preface -- Introduction -- Periphery Indebtedness in the World-Economy -- External Debt of Sovereign Borrowers: Seven Approaches -- Structural Features and Long-Term Processes of the World-System -- Dynamics of Global Debt Cycles: A Theoretical Model -- Empirical Evidence of Global Debt Cycles -- Capital Exports from the Core and Foreign Loans Raised by the Periphery -- Global Debt Crises -- The Pattern of Debt Settlements -- Case Studies: The Debt Histories of Peru, Liberia and Turkey -- Selection of the Country Case Studies: Methodological Considerations -- Peru: The Classical Case -- Liberia: An Enclave Economy at the Extreme Periphery -- Ottoman Empire/Turkey: From World-Empire to Periphery -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Time Series of Data on Global Debt Crises, 1823-1989