SSRC Dissertation Development Fellow Hassan Malik

Bankers and Bolsheviks: ‘Emerging Market’ Investors in Russia, 1880-1093

History, Harvard University

Project Description
In my dissertation, I examine cross-border bond investing in “emerging markets” during the first modern age of globalization, from c. 1880 to 1930. Russia serves as the lens through which I explore the topic, given that it was the largest net importer of foreign portfolio capital for much of this period. I seek to better understand the factors influencing the decision making of private investors, the governments of capital-exporting countries, and the governments of the emerging markets of this earlier age of globalization. In doing so, I contribute to existing debates in economics and economic history about the nature of cross-border investing and its relationship to real economic growth. My work also contributes to debates on the history of international banking by presenting new documents on the history of Western banks in Russia. Equally important, within the context of Russian history, I engage debates on the Russian Revolution by studying the often-neglected financial dimensions and undercurrents of this seminal event in world history.

Bio:
Hassan Malik is a PhD candidate in international history at Harvard University. He is interested in financial and international history, and is writing a dissertation on the financial history of the Russian Revolution with a particular focus on the role of American, British, and French financiers in the Russian markets from c. 1880 to 1930. Hassan worked for several years in investment banking in for J.P. Morgan and Troika Dialog in New York and Moscow after graduating from the University of Chicago. Hassan has lived in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, Malaysia, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is fluent in Russian, Spanish, and Urdu, and is proficient in French.

Photo from the field - Hassan Malik