Did you know that between 1912 and 1956, the Moroccan city of Tangier was run by the imperial powers as an "International Zone"? By the early 1950s 3/4 of its population was European, and it hosted over 140 banks and 6000 shell-corporations laundering money for the wealthy.

This and other fascinating facts in Vanessa Ogle's new article "Funk Money" in @PastPresentSoc

International capitalism, tax-evasion, and the global reach of western power, going waaaay back...

So much dirty money was trying to get out of the colonial realm in the late 1950s that Swiss bankers and their government made a deal to make inward cash transfers as hard as possible - yes, as hard as possible, it was destabilising their economy!

In 1960, white settlers in Kenya almost crashed their local banking system trying to shift funds out. Then they were targeted for "help" by newly-chartered investment trusts in the Bahamas - James Bond's favourite sun-spot, and a tax-haven since the Depression.

International banking helped wealthy settler families avoid taxation on their assets in newly-independent states, AND hedged against the prospect of estate taxation if they moved back to the UK.

At this point, if you've been paying attention in recent years, you won't be surprised to see the UK's unique concept of 'non-domiciled' tax status rear its head, allowing people who do, in fact, live here to pretend that they don't, and avoid tax.

Ahh, the bit where HMG in early 1951 is horrified to discover that people with high incomes in colonial territories pay almost no tax... And the fact that, thanks to the global system, that's what they mostly carried on doing...

It's a bit political, this history lark, innit?

Hello, @vanessahistory, nice work! https://twitter.com/vanessahistory/status/1297998105573576708