Forgotten Financiers of the Louisiana Purchase

Larry Neal is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Fellow of the Cliometrics Society.

• Chapter 1: Behind the Scenes of the Louisiana Purchase.- Chapter 2:  Setting Up the Finance for the Louisiana Purchase.- Chapter 3: “The Present Order of Things” in January 1803.- Chapter 4:  Baring & Hope Anticipate Financing the Louisiana Purchase.- Chapter 5:  All The Players Were Important.- Chapter 6:  Daniel Parker, American Expatriate Extraordinaire.- Chapter 7:  The deal is done, but problems arise:                America, London, Paris, and Amsterdam .- Chapter 8:  Meanwhile, More Trouble Back in Paris.- Chapter 9: The Financial & Personal Crises of 1810-11.- Chapter 10: The War of 1812 and the Financiers of the Louisiana Purchase.- Chapter 11: Lessons Learned and Applied.- Chapter 12:  Curtain Call: The Players Should Take a Bow.

“Larry Neal provides a valuable contribution by documenting the level of involvement of international financiers in the expansion of sovereign debt financing during the Napoleonic era. He shows that these financiers were not just passive intermediaries but were active in proposing, creating, negotiating, and executing sovereign debt deals. Things did not just happen or just happen between governments. International financers were potent actors in that drama—facilitating deals between less-than-allied nations.” (Farley Grubb, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 63 (2), June, 2025)