The United Kingdom: Meso-corporatism and Industrial Decline

London’s importance as an international financial centre far outstrips the international significance of the wider British economy. This financial eminence has many foundations, but the most significant lie in the banking community: London’s place in the world financial system rests, above all, on its continuing eminence as an international banking centre. (The extent of this eminence can be seen at a glance by referring back to Table 1 on p. 3). This leading position is traceable to many factors: to the accident of language, because in a century when English has been the world language London possessed a natural advantage over, especially, European rivals; to the equally accidental geographical consideration that has placed London in a ‘time zone’ intermediate between the two other great centres of New York and Tokyo; to a long history as an economic capital, which endowed London with the commercial and physical infrastructure needed to support markets; to the country’s enviable history of political stability; and to the simple fact that for the American bankers who led the first wave of international banking, London was a congenial place in which to live.