Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire

Rating:
Summary: The City and the House of Lords
Review: After reviewing the various theories about power relations between the City and British upper class, authors analyze history of British investments across the globe: Asia, Africa, Latin America, Canada to name a few. They show how both City and British upper aristocracy rather than the British industrialists shaped British imperial strategies.

They demonstrate how the main Imperial and Overseas investors in are the British upper class while City professionals and middle class invest mainly in Britain and Europe. The City was used to channel British old money across the globe.

Main beneficiaries of those imperial and overseas investments are people with political power, the Lords. These in turn shape British imperial policies to fit their investments, building the British Empire along it.

But all locations are not equally influenced by them. Canadian financial markets in the interwar period for instance move according to interest rate of the dollar and pound. If dollar interest rate is lower than pound interest rate, then American influence is larger in Canada. Otherwise British influence dominates.

A detailed study about relation betweens upper classes and imperialism even if authors focused their attention on relations between the City and British Aristocracy adequatly naming it 'Gentlemanly Capitalism'.