ABSTRACT
The commercial and financial activities associated with London's trade have been influenced by the same factors as the port services. London, as the Port of London Authority put it, 'has for long been regarded as the best market', both nationally and internationally. The Barlow Commission's description gives an accurate enough impression of the leading London manufacturing industries. The typical depressed industries of the two decades before the war are relatively unimportant in London. The industry which did appear in Outer London, either as a new growth or through transference from the centre, was not evenly distributed. The war has in some ways affected Greater London more than any other large region. The effect of the war on employment in Greater London has been smaller. It is true that in London and the South-east as a whole both employment and the insured population fell noticeably in the first three years of war, distinctly more than in any other region.
