ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 discusses the various areas of concern relating to the London money markets for copper mining. Mining depends on the support of capital, and the London capital markets were especially geared towards supporting the mineral development of the world. The mineral wealth may be there, and labour ready to work, but without capital both would remain idle. The chapter is organised in four sections. Before investigating the structure of the London capital markets in the second section, the first briefly outlines the late-nineteenth-century technology transfer in the fields of transport and communication that drastically increased the world demand for copper. The third focuses on the central role played by the London Metal Exchange in the world’s copper trade, whereas the fourth investigates business formulas adopted by London-based companies engaged in the overseas mining business. The chapter maintains that investment in mine exploring and prospecting was a capital-intensive and risky business and implied long cycles of returns and calls for further investment. As a result, the mining industry was structured as a vertically highly integrated oligopoly.
