The City Of London Volume 1: A World of its Own 1815-1890

(Paperback)

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Description

This first title from a three-volume work tells the story of the City of London's 19th century ascent to its position as the world's leading financial centre. It details the rise of the merchant banks, the growth of the Stock Exchange, the internationalization of the money market, and the characters behind these developments, such as Nathan Rothschild or Joshua Bates, who consolidated the power of the Barings. It also features financial drama: the burning of the Royal Exchange in 1838; the fortunes made from South American guano; and the Baring Crisis of 1890, when the city's most respected house was rescued by it keenest rival.

Reviews

Exceptionally readable...a colourful narrative full of well-judged extracts from contemporary material * Financial Times *
An absorbing read, full of good quotations and riveting anecdote... A significant piece of scholarship * English Historical Review *
It would be difficult to conceive a more lucid or entertaining study of a subject both immensely complex and of the greatest historical importance * Daily Telegraph *
Charlotte Bront once wrote: "At the West End you may be amused, but in the City you are deeply excited." A better blurb for this book is hard to imagine... Wonderfully vivid * Mail on Sunday *
It's rare to be able to say that a historical book is positively life-enhancing but David Kynaston, in his vivacious yet measured book, has proved that he is a rare kind of writer * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. After graduating from New College Oxford, he studied at the London School of Economics. A professional historian, in addition to the four-volume The City of London, his works include King Labour: A History of the British Working Class, 1850-1914, histories of the Financial Times and the stockbrokers Cazenove & co., and the first two volumes in a planned history of Britain between 1945 and 1979, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 and Family Britain, 1951-57.