ABSTRACT
The growth of London as the centre of British and international finance is one of the better-known aspects of the nineteenth-century London economy. Expansion from relatively modest beginnings took place across a wide variety of financial activities – government finance, the stock exchange, national banking, merchant (or investment) banking, insurance, international finance and commercial trade. All of these sectors underwent rapid growth, particularly after 1860, caused by expanding opportunities offered by the world market and the possibility of moving into new areas of business. Each financial sector increasingly became more specialised and international, incorporating many foreign-based rivals.
