ABSTRACT
After the dominance of radical economic liberalism, a novel political philosophy began to emerge in the early 20th century. Anchored in papal encyclicals and Catholic teachings, this philosophy promised a new role for the state in the economic sphere. Unlike previous calls for minimalist intervention, Catholic Social Thought (CST) called for a subsidiary role. The state had a duty to protect the poor from exploitation. This novel political philosophy identified areas for public-policy attention in which the world of finance figured prominently. In fact, the financial sector would be reshaped as political leaders from conservative factions conceived of, designed and organized financial entities to serve the poor. Credit-specialized banks, like the Agrarian Credit Bank, took hold in the first decades of the twentieth century under the aegis of a state imbued by CST. Relying on primary sources and secondary literature consisting of individual and official memoirs, government publications, and the works of a leading figure, Mariano Ospina Pérez, this chapter seeks to unravel the relationships between CST and this bank – one which would continue to play a large role in the Colombian banking system. Although the relationship between church and state has been widely studied, investigations of the linkages between Catholic doctrines and finance remain few and far between. As the chapter demonstrates, such neglect is unjustified. The influence of CST on the development of the modern financial system has proved to be significant and enduring.
