Monday 28th November, 2005 AD

"SHAKING FREE OF THE IMPERIAL GRIP"

Today, Monday November 28th, is a general banking and office holiday in Panamá, as the nation celebrates its official independence from Imperial Spain in 1821. Suddenly an unusual and lazy quiet descends over this normally busy, hyperactive city, as its inhabitants pour out to the
country's tropical beaches and rainforests.

On any normal day, one of the immediate reactions of a first time visitor to Panamá City is its international flavor and feel; the mixing pot of people from all corners of the globe cramming into its loud, hectic streets, businesses, banks, shops, and sidewalks. So how did this small splint of
land between the north and south Americas become the gathering place of so many diverse people, and as a country, so strategically important to the entire world?

Panamá is a country steeped in a rich history of commerce, shipping, trade, investment and financial services, but what so few realize is the pivotal roll that Panamá played in the financial and monetary history of  the world.

The discovery and opening up of the Americas by the Spanish brought vast new monetary stocks of gold and silver into circulation in Western Europe (importantly, these monetary stocks stimulated Western Europe into the Renaissance and eventually paved the way for the Industrial
Revolution). But the Spanish quickly discovered that finding and extracting the incalculable treasures of Peru was the easy part, transporting all this gold and silver back to Spain was altogether something else.

Between the 1560's to the early 1700's, an incredible 2 billion Pesos in precious metals was bought from the Pacific Americas (primarily Peru) to Panamá Viejo and carried by mule and slave over the Isthmus of Panamá to the waiting Spanish Galleons in Panamanian Atlantic waters. At its narrowest point the harsh and dangerous "Las Cruzes Trail" (trail of the Cross) represented a land crossing of just 18 miles, yet history records that many of the 1000 mules and men would perish while making each crossing.

Today, one can take short drive from Panamá City and walk through the vast underground vaults of Fort San Lorenzo, built by the Spanish in the 1500's for the safe keeping of gold and silver awaiting its trip to Spain. To this day Panamá remains a vitally important financial center and
crossroads of the world.

Eventually, as history has demonstrated so many times, Panamá would strive to break free of Spain's high taxing, highly regulated, imperialistic grip, at last conclusively freeing itself of Spain 184 years ago today. Panamá, sometimes referred to as the 'Switzerland of the Americas', went
on to become a model of the 'free market economy', and today, is clearly one of the last bastions of the free market left surviving in the world. 

Best Regards - Philip Judge pjudge@anglofareast.com