1. Introduction and Overview

The asset management profession developed and became established in Britain after 1700. Organised borrowing, supported by the Bank of England and government, developed rapidly as did savings vehicles after 1850 in the form of life assurance, pooled vehicles and pension funds. This work concentrates on the people (Maynard Keynes, Robert Fleming, George Ross Goobey) and the institutions (Foreign & Colonial, M&G) who built the foundations of world-class expertise in asset management, independent from banks. Crises such as the 1929 Crash and the First World War accelerated change in the profession. By 1900, asset management was firmly established as a discrete activity in Britain; it had failed after 1800 in Holland and only became reputable in the USA after about 1930 with people such as Benjamin Graham and organisations like Wellington.