ABSTRACT
Merchants and their historians like to believe that commerce as an occupation requires a particular approach to business. Mercantile culture appears as a special sphere in the business community, characterized by a unique proclivity for cosmopolitanism and a keen sense of a long and distinct tradition. 1 Who could fail to be moved by the demise of Barings Bank, a house that could look back on a history of more than 200 years, when the reckless speculation in stock derivatives and futures of a young, subordinate employee bankrupted it in 1995? But Barings appeared as a quaint anachronism, a merchant bank in an age of globalization. Where money can be moved across the globe in split seconds, a network of associates bound by the credit that rests on honour and trust is obsolete. Capital has truly become an anonymous and democratic entity, emancipated from the guardianship of privileged notables. Nick Leeson merely executed the verdict which history had passed on his employers and their storied past. 2
