His business is now managed by
his sons.
The larger merchants combine a banking business with their export and
import business. The foremost of these private bankers of late years
was Santiago Michelena, a Porto Rican. Less than ten years ago there
was not a single bank in the Republic, but there are now three well
equipped banking institutions, all of them with their local
headquarters in the capital. One of these is the International Banking
Corporation, which is connected with the National City Bank of New
York; it entered the Dominican Republic in April, 1917, by taking over
Michelena's banking business. It has a branch in Macoris and Puerto
Plata and agencies and correspondents throughout the country. Another
bank is the Royal Bank of Canada, which does a flourishing business in
a number of the West India Islands; it has branches in five cities of
the Dominican Republic. The third bank is the Banco Nacional de Santo
Domingo, incorporated by Americans under the Dominican banking law of
1909, with a capital of $500,000. Although it has several branches,
its business is not so active as that of the other banks, since it has
lent most of its capital to the government.
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