The 1982 Debt Crisis 40 Years Later: Business in Turbulent Times (Part I)

2022 will mark the 40th anniversary of the International Debt Crisis that originated in August 1982 in Mexico and rapidly engulfed developing countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia. This double panel aims to shed new light on this crucial historical period by analysing the transformation and experiences of the business (Part I) and financial (Part II) sectors.
Over the last ten years, there has been an increasing attention among business and financial historians on international finance and economic performance during the early years of modern financial globalisation. As commercial banks, firms, supervisory agencies and international financial organisations have opened their archives for the 1970s and 1980s, a growing number of scholars have consulted a large variety of recently disclosed primary sources in Britain, continental Europe, the United States, and Latin America itself and generated new strands of historical research. The result is, with hindsight, that many of the assumptions about the behaviour of lenders, private business and governments, and understanding of the long-term outcomes of international finance and the debt crisis of 1982 are now under scrutiny and revision in the light of new historical evidence.
This panel will contribute to further develop this literature by bringing together a collection of new original historical studies from emerging and established scholars on financial and business history in Latin America and other affected regions during the turbulent decades of the 1970s and 1980s.
Our goal is to provide new perspectives and enhance our knowledge of the period by revisiting the role of crucial but neglected actors from outside the Global North in light of material that was not available at the time. Given the challenges of rising indebtedness looming in the post-Covid 19 world, we believe that the 2022 BHC Meeting in Mexico City will be an ideal setting to revisit and discuss this major episode of financial crisis in the history of the developing world.