This is the first serious history of merchant banking, based on the archives of the leading houses and the records of their activities throughout the world. It combines scholarly insight with readability, and offers a totally new assessment of the origins of one of the most dynamic sectors of the City of London money market, of the British economy as a whole and of a major aspect of the growth of international business.
Dr Chapman has researched new material from the archives of Rothschilds, Barings, Kleinwort Benson and other leading houses together with a wide range of archives and published work in Europe, America and South Africa to trace the roots of British enterprise in financing international trade, exporting capital, floating companies, arbitrage, and other activities of the merchant banks.
While mindful of the subtleties of international financial connections, this book assumes no previous acquaintance with the jargon of banking, economics and sociology. It will therefore prove equally interesting to students of history, business and finance, and offers a 'good read' to anyone interested in the City of London and the international economy.

This is the first serious history of merchant banking, based on the archives of the leading houses and the records of their activities throughout the world. It combines scholarly insight with readability, and offers a totally new assessment of the origins of one of the most dynamic sectors of the City of London money market, of the British economy as a whole and of a major aspect of the growth of international business.

Dr Chapman has researched new material from the archives of Rothschilds, Barings, Kleinwort Benson and other leading houses together with a wide range of archives and published work in Europe, America and South Africa to trace the roots of British enterprise in financing international trade, exporting capital, floating companies, arbitrage, and other activities of the merchant banks.

While mindful of the subtleties of international financial connections, this book assumes no previous acquaintance with the jargon of banking, economics and sociology. It will therefore prove equally interesting to students of history, business and finance, and offers a 'good read' to anyone interested in the City of London and the international economy.

Studies of the British Industrial Revolution and of the Victorian period of economic and social development have until very recently concentrated on British industries and industrial regions, while commerce and finance, and particularly that of London, have been substantially neglected. This has distorted our view of the process of change, since financial services and much trade continued to be centred on the metropolis, and the south-east region never lost its position at the top of the national league of wealth.

Studies of the British Industrial Revolution and of the Victorian period of economic and social development have until very recently concentrated on British industries and industrial regions, while commerce and finance, and particularly that of London, have been substantially neglected. This has distorted our view of the process of change because financial services and much trade continued to be centred on the metropolis, and the south-east region never lost its position at the top of the national league of wealth. This is a pioneer survey of the mercantile sector of the economy from the end of the eighteenth century to World War I. It complements Dr. Chapman's The Rise of Merchant Banking (1984), concentrating on the various ways in which British merchants responded to the unprecedented opportunities of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of the British Empire. The main conclusion is that industrial entrepreneurs contributed only briefly to merchant ventures, and that with limited success. Rather did the established merchant community evolve its own new forms of enterprise to meet the changing opportunities: the 'new frontier' merchant networks of the Atlantic economy, the international houses in continental trade, the agency houses in the Far East, and the home trade houses dominating the domestic market. These resilient organisations enabled the British merchant enterprise to survive longer and in greater strength than in other Western economies.