It is easy to tell a story about the benefits of capital flows and open capital markets. The free movement of financial capital lets the receiving countries obtain more resources for investment while businesses and individuals in the sending countries earn higher returns. History is full of examples. In the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom invested its savings in infrastructure projects around the world, but especially in its colonies and former colonies where British savings were used to build the railroads, seaports, mines, urban sanitation systems, and other major projects. British investors were not alone in investing in the Americas, Asia, and Africa, but were joined by German, French, Dutch, and others lenders and investors.