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Before 1914, the City of London was the premier international financial centre. However, following the disruption of the world markets caused by World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s, other industrial nations quickly and effectively challenged Britain's influence. Critics of the banks claim that, even before 1914, there were serious deficiencies in the financial provision provided by banks to the domestic industrial sector, and that these deficiencies handicapped Britain's competitive advantage in world markets, leading to the decline of their influence and power. This book examines these claims, and bringing to bear important new data that presents the debate in a novel and revealing framework, expounds an economic rationale for historical bank behaviour.
About the author
Michael Collins is Professor of Financial History at the University of Leeds, and author of a number of books on the history of banking in the UK, and journal articles on different aspects of monetary history.
Mae Baker is Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at the University of Leeds. She is author of a number of journal articles on different aspects of monetary history.
Summary
Presenting an interpretation of bank-industry relations in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, this title considers whether deficiencies in the financial provision from banks to British industry handicapped Britain's competitive advantage in world markets. It also offers an economic rationale for historical bank behaviour.
Additional text
This is fundamental reading in British (and European) banking history, and also a very informative and stimulating source for economic and business historian alike.
