Business biography and economic history: Robert Brooks, the Union Bank of Australia, and the development of imperial finance, 1837-1876

The business biography is an important methodological tool for the understanding of economic history. It can provide alternative microeconomic case studies to those based on company history, analyse business networks within the economy and connections between business and its social and political environment, and assess the motivation of individual entrepreneurs. This case study of Robert Brooks, a leader of the Australian trade in the City, throws new light on the development of nineteenth century imperial finance and emphasizes the considerable symbiosis of private and corporate interests as demonstrated in his long-standing leadership of the Union Bank of Australia.