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About Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
I am a business historian of the automation of retail banking. I have explored themes such as the ATM and the cashless society. My interests and publications also straddle contemporary issues in digital payments. For my weekly list of working papers in business and economic history see http://nep.repec.org/nep-his.h...
Bernardo Batiz-Lazo is currently straddling between Newcastle and Mexico City. You can find him on twitter on issues related to business history of banking, fintech, payments and other musings. Not always in that order. @BatizLazo
NBN Episodes hosted by Bernardo:
March 22, 2026
Bankminded
In today’s world, it is almost impossible to go through the day without interacting with a bank—whether through a salary payment, a debit card, a cred…
February 12, 2026
The Making of the Modern Supermarket
What seems mundane today—walking into a supermarket, picking up goods, and paying at a checkout—was once a radical experiment. In our latest New Books…
August 29, 2025
Private Finance, Public Power
What does it mean to supervise a bank? And why does it matter who holds that power? In this episode, Sean H. Vanatta joins us to explore the hidden ma…
April 13, 2025
Small, Medium, Large
Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse, published by Polity Books in 2024, offers a bold reinterpretation …
April 9, 2025
How Economics Explains the World
How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity (Mariner Books, 2024) is a book for anyone interested in understanding the economic forc…
March 25, 2025
Intelligent Money
Chris Skinner’s Intelligent Money offers a fascinating glimpse into a future where your money works for you. Forget spreadsheets and endless budgeting…
January 19, 2025
Meltdown
Meltdown: Scandal, Sleaze and the Collapse of Credit Suisse (Pegasus Books, 2024) is a great business history book. It meticulously chronicles the st…
November 27, 2024
The Trouble with Jokes
In this podcast, Nick Butler explores humour's complex and often controversial role in shaping modern political discourse, examining how jokes can cha…
November 4, 2024
Kingmaker
Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers (Ithaka, 2024) by Sir Graham Brady provides an insider’s look at the power struggle…
October 25, 2024
Contested Money
Discussing money is always accompanied by controversy as well as enchantment. Debating what money is and how it performs its main functions in the con…
October 15, 2024
Commercial Banking in Kenya
Commercial Banking in Kenya: A History from Colonisation to Digital Age (Routledge, 2024) investigates the impact of commercial banks in Kenya right t…
October 7, 2024
The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838
Economic history has always emphasized the importance of long-distance trade in the emergence of modern financial markets, yet almost nothing is known…
October 5, 2024
Underground Leviathan
Underground Leviathan: Corporate Sovereignty and Mining in the Americas (U Nevada Press, 2024) explores the emergence, dynamics, and lasting impacts o…
August 15, 2024
Money, Going Out of Style
What is money? Why are trillions of dollars, euros, pounds, and yen being printed, but not spent, and what does this reveal about the state of our soc…
April 19, 2024
As Gods Among Men
This provocative and interesting book has received considerable attention. Roaring reviews and interviews include The Financial Times (UK), The Teleg…
January 19, 2024
Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France
Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire Under Louis XIV (Boydell Press, 2023) closely analyse…
January 16, 2024
The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930
Christopher Corker's The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930 (U of York, 2016) focuses on four in-depth case studie…
January 14, 2024
Inside IBM
IBM was the world's leading provider of information technologies for much of the twentieth century. What made it so successful for such a long time, a…
December 13, 2023
Varieties of Capitalism Over Time
Varieties of Capitalism Over Time (Routledge, 2022) looks at how varieties of capitalism emerge over time and across different geographies, and is com…
November 20, 2023
Networks, Innovation, and Knowledge: the North Staffordshire Potteries, 1750-1851
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the industrial district of the North Staffordshire Potteries dominated the British earthenware industr…
November 8, 2023
Cotton, Finance and Business Networks in a Globalised World
Firms and entrepreneurs were key drivers of the globalisation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This thesis investigates commodity…
October 18, 2023
Colonial Ports, Global Trade, and the Roots of the American Revolution (1700-1776)
Jeremy Land's book Colonial Ports, Global Trade, and the Roots of the American Revolution (1700-1776) (Brill, 2023) takes a long-run view of the globa…
October 17, 2023
Using the Past
Recent scholarship in organisation studies has begun to address how organisations perceive and use their history. However, how organisations preserve …
October 17, 2023
Civilian Specialists at War
World War I was the first great general conflict to be fought between highly industrial societies able to manufacture and transport immense quantities…