The City’s Impact: the State, Dominant Class, and Financial System

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century, the City had made a decisive and enduring impact on British society. Despite the attempts of the modernisation movements, the major institutions and classes formed during this period have never been Subject to any drastic restructuring. Many of the economic conditions upon which the City’s position in the world economy had been partly based ceased to operate from the early years of the twentieth century, but the institutional arrangements and the class associated with the City’s dominance persisted and ultimately permitted the City’s revival. In this chapter, I shall outline what I consider to be the major features of the legacy bequeathed by the City’s role in British development: the Treasury’s close association with the City and Bank of England; the aristocratic and ‘anti-industrial’ complexion of the dominant class; and the apparent inability of the financial system to engage itself with domestic industry.