ABSTRACT
The First World War was more than just a time corridor between the sleepy dealing days of the Edwardian era and the foreign exchange trading boom of the early 1920s. The emergence after the hostilities of a ‘modern’ foreign exchange market dominated by big commercial banks and characterised by speedy communications had much to do with the direct impact of the war on the everyday life of the City. The unreliability of the mails between 1914 and 1918 encouraged the greater use of the telegraph by financial institutions, the political and military uncertainties of the time led to the faster settlement of cross-border payments, and the liquidation of the branches of enemy owned banks in Britain redrew the competitive map of the currency market.
