Book Description

Examines the sociological causes for differences in small business formation and other personal finance trends among Chinese and Japanese immigrant communities and African-Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Incorporating both a broad overview of the experience of these minority groups in the face of discriminatory practices with an examination of historical data, the authors review the role played by special consumer demands, informal credit facilities and formal banking operations, and features of immigrant and African-American social organizations on rates of small business ownership, representation in professions, and insurance subscription. The unique consumer demands of immigrant communities, demands that were not shared by the native African-American community, is held to explain some of the increased rates of business ownership by Asian immigrants in light of their pre-existing understanding of that consumer demand. Nevertheless, the author notes that roles of traditional Asian forms of business organization had been overlooked and these modes of organization also help explain the higher rates of ownership. Similarly, traditional credit practices, in particular, the Chinese hui, the Japanese ko or tanomoshi, and the West African esusu, are investigated. These credit arrangements aided disfavored minority groups in obtaining credit for business operations that were otherwise unavailable to them in the formal capital markets. The socioeconomic circumstances of African slaves in the Caribbean is contrasted with that in North America to trace the disappearance of the esusu among African-Americans. The salubrious effect of informal credit facilities is further supported by an examination of the successes of Afro-Caribbean immigrants who retained the esusu in their cultural repertoire. Minority-operated banks met with less success and diminished investment opportunities is determined to be a significant cause of the problem. The latter half of the book affords an extensive treatment of the historical facts of minority social and religious organizations and the sociological theories that may explain the variety of forms those organizations took. The effect that these organizations had on trends regarding mutual aid, recourse to public assistance, and insurance purchases is an additional focus. (CAR).