ABSTRACT
Britain's invisible earnings, with the currency flows derived from re-exports, together with those provided by the intense activity of the merchant navy and companies involved in business services, counterbalanced at least in part the continuous trade deficits which characterized the British economy from about the middle of the 19th century. In spite of the variety of methods, the different length of the period under examination, the limited availability of data and the large number of authors, it has been possible to determine the historical series of flows and stocks of Britain's foreign investments. The following work forms part of a long research project which has examined the history of the British Empire until the First World War from a very particular point of view. During the study of the trends of Great Britain's current account in the balance of payments it has become evident that the most significant, variable of the British imperial presence was the volume of foreign investments.
