ABSTRACT
London is probably the best-equipped centre in the world for granting foreign loans. For the issuing house’s issuing credit, which can easily be affected, is involved, and it is very highly to its own interest to make sure that issue is found. Britain is thus once more a net exporter of long-term capital despite the fact that the balance on current account has been negative almost continuously since 1931. The general trend of capital exports from Great Britain since the war has been increasingly in direction of Empire countries. In years 1921–1923 Empire borrowing, though quantitatively large, had not reached the relative importance it was to occupy in later years, although there were heavy exports of capital to India and Ceylon. The legal definition of trustee securities in Great Britain forms direct encouragement to certain classes of borrowers, and the effects of this have been further reinforced by actions of the authorities who control issues for overseas borrowers in London.
