ABSTRACT
The City of London was Parliament's major source of credit, and wealthy Londoners feature prominently among the treasurers and commissioners who administered Parliament's financial machinery. There are three aspects of the economic impact of parliamentary finance which need to be addressed: firstly the extent to which London profited or lost from these transactions, secondly whether parliamentary finance drew capital away from other sections of the economy, and thirdly did the war produce long term changes in the financial sector. There were a large number of minor loans raised in the City and Londoners often lent money for very short periods in times of crisis. 1 This makes it difficult to calculate the total amount of money lent towards Parliament's war effort, but by concentrating on the major loans raised by Parliament, it is possible to establish the broad outlines of the economic impact of parliamentary finance.
