Bankocracy (from the English word bank and Ancient Greek κράτος - kratos, "power, rule") or trapezocracy (from Greek τράπεζα - trapeza, "bank") is a polemic term referring to the excessive power or influence of banks on public policy-making. It can also refer to a form of government where financial institutions rule society.
Usage One of the first uses of the term was by British Member of Parliament William Fullarton (1754–1808), who in a parliamentary debate on April 10, 1797 characterized the monopoly of the Bank of England as being a more important issue to solve than the peace attempts to end the war against France:FULLARTON, William (1754-1808), of Fullarton, Ayr. | History of Parliament Online
United States Senator Robert J. Walker (1801–1869), a staunch opponent of the Bank of the United States, delivered a speech in the Senate on January 21, 1840, where he warned that the acceptance of paper money as legal tender would "overthrow the Constitution, subvert the liberties of the country, and the rights of the people, and establish the reign of a bankocracy, more sordid, ruinous, and despotic, than that of any monarch, however absolute."
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon used the term in his work Les Confessions d’un révolutionnaire (1849), in reference to the July Monarchy:Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1849). Confessions of a Revolutionary V. 1830-1848: Government Corruption
Mikhail Bakunin, an anarchist like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, used the term in his work Statism and Anarchy while talking about the reaction from the German State headed by Otto von Bismarck.Bakunin, Mikhail (1873). Statism and Anarchy, The Struggle of the Two Parties in the International Working Men’s Association He uses the russian term for Yid in the original script, a derogatory for the word "Jew", showing his historically noted anti-semitism.
The term was also used by Karl Marx in his work Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (1867). He theorizes the birth of national debt as the catalyst for the primitive accumulation of capital:Marx, Karl (1867). Capital, Vol. I. Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist
In Marxian economics, the term cognates with finance capitalism in general.
Numerous political observers and journalists have used the term when describing or commenting on the 2008 financial crisis.University of Leicester - 'Against Bankocracy: Bank ownership, regulation and growth ' event
See also Bank of Saint George, a financial institution of the Republic of Genoa
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