Lessons from the U.K. Experience

Abstract

For over a century London has functioned as an international financial and banking centre. This status accrued to The City as a result of the far-flung colonial empire that required varied financial and banking services, the substantial accumulation of overseas investments by U.K. residents, the outstanding financial markets in the U.K., and from the role of sterling as the reserve and settlement currency of a globe-girdling political system. British investment in the regions of dependency accumulated, and added to the banking and financial ties that linked the various units of this system together. Unfortunately, the two global wars in the first half of this century seriously limited the role played by London as an international financial centre.

That island of England breeds very valiant creatures: their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

Henry V