ABSTRACT
On the eve of the First World War London was the world’s foremost international nancial centre, as it had been for more than a century. Other major nancial centres developed from the 1870s, notably Berlin and New York, principally to serve their rapidly growing domestic economies though they also increasingly provided international services, as did Paris and Amsterdam, London’s longstanding juniors. However, the operation of rst mover advantages and powerful external economies of scale and scope ensured that London sustained a pre-eminent position.1 us the e ect of the expansion of international trade and capital ows in the rst era of globalization was both greater divergence in the provision of international nancial services, but also the emergence of a complex multipolar pattern of convergence with London as the hub of a new nancial web. e crisis that engulfed London in summer 1914 shattered the international network of nancial relationships and also threatened to destroy the mechanisms of London’s operations as a nancial centre.
