Banks and Industrial Finance in Britain, 1800–1939

An accessible and balanced study of the disputed role of banks in financing British industry.

Michael Collins (Author)

9780521552714, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 September 1995

120 pages, 6 tables
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.252 kg

This accessible study investigates the role of banks in the finance of British industry, an issue which has long been the subject of dispute. From one perspective the history of British finance is one of success: from the late nineteenth century the City of London was the leading financial centre in the international economy. Yet there has been much disquiet over the level of support that banks have given to British Industry, particularly when Britain's economic hegemony was challenged at the end of the nineteenth century, and during the malaise which followed the First World War. Michael Collins weighs the conflicting arguments. Is there evidence of failure in the money markets? Has the estrangement of financial and industrial capital hindered Britain's economic development? He places these and other questions in historical context and provides a survey of literature on this contentious subject.

Acknowledgements
1. The nature of the problem
2. Explanatory schema
3. Industrial finance before 1870
4. Banks and industry, 1870–1914
5. City vs industry, 1870–1914
6. The interwar period
7. Summary
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]