{"product_id":"banking-on-the-state-the-financial-foundations-of-lebanon-stanford-studies-in-middle-eastern-and-islamic-societies-and-cultures-9781503609679","title":"Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1943  Lebanon gained its formal political independence from France; only after two more decades did the country finally establish a national central bank. Inaugurated on April 1  1964  the Banque du Liban (BDL) was billed by Lebanese authorities as the nations primary symbol of economic sovereignty and as the last step towards full independence. In the local press  it was described as a means of projecting state power and enhancing national pride. Yet the history of its foundingstretching from its Ottoman origins in mid-nineteenth century up until the mid-twentiethtells a different  more complex story. Banking on the State reveals how the financial foundations of Lebanon were shaped by the history of the standardization of economic practices and financial regimes within the decolonizing world. The system of central banking that emerged was the product of a complex interaction of war  economic policies  international financial regimes  post-colonial state-building  global currents of technocratic knowledge  and private business interests. It served rather than challenged the interests of an oligarchy of local bankers. As Hicham Safieddine shows  the set of arrangements that governed the central bank thus was dictated by dynamics of political power and financial profit more than market forces  national interest or economic sovereignty.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67600516808757,"sku":"ByrdShop_1503609677","price":35.97,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781503609679.jpg?v=1790973221","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/banking-on-the-state-the-financial-foundations-of-lebanon-stanford-studies-in-middle-eastern-and-islamic-societies-and-cultures-9781503609679","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}