Growth of Arab Financial Expertise

Rodney Wilson
Additional contact information
Rodney Wilson: University of Durham

Chapter 3 in Banking and Finance in the Arab Middle East, 1983, pp 42-69 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract With the spread of education in the Arab world, especially in the first three decades of this century, many young Arabs started to enter the modern sectors of their own economies. They began to take over some of the jobs which had formerly been carried out by foreigners, either expatriates from Europe serving in the area for short stays, or more permanently resident foreign nationals, such as those living in large numbers in Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo. In the field of banking and finance many young Arabs already worked for the foreign banks represented in the Middle East even in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, but most did not rise above the lowest clerical positions, and many were employed as messengers and in other similar menial tasks. By the 1920s however this situation was changing and, although few Arabs had reached the position of branch managers in the commercial banking system, many of the jobs up to cashier level were filled by local citizens. These moves went furthest in Egypt and the Levant, as school-leavers from the foreign colleges, where many wealthy local merchants sent their families, were in heavy demand by the banks. Teaching in schools such as the American College in Cairo was entirely conducted in English, and the basic numerate and literary skills imparted were the same as those taught in western schools.1

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; Middle East; Banking System; Commercial Bank; State Ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1983
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-04817-5_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349048175

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-04817-5_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().