Abstract
In the beginning there was the Commercial City. Over the course of a century the City of London has been transformed from a commercial centre into a financial one. However, it is little recognised how recent this change has been, for modern writers on the City tend to ignore the commercial aspect entirely or suggest that it was of little importance by the mid-nineteenth century. McRae and Cairncross, for example, omit any mention of trade in their brief review of the City of London in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, though considering it important in the eighteenth.1 However, in Victorian times the City was still regarded as much for its position in domestic distribution and international trade as for its ability to mobilise and organise capital and credit.2 During the inter-war years, the financial components of the City began to dominate public perception, much to the annoyance of the many who were not engaged in that business. One was Percy Hartley, a shipbroker, who complained in 1938 that:
It is remarkable how some country and even suburban folk think that the City is the Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange is the City — and the chief or indeed only occupation for City men — that is gentlemen — is stockbroking.3
The facilities, indeed, which London enjoys for buying and selling, chartering and financing, are unique, and one cannot, therefore, see anything to disturb its importance as the commercial centre of Europe.
J.A. Findlay, The Baltic Exchange, London 1927, p. 42
The long years of control had one positive result. However necessary or desirable in the exigencies of war, the limitations of government trading in time of peace had been fully demonstrated. Indeed, it may be said that from the post-war experience came a general realisation of the advantages that stemmed from the presence of a free and active market in London, both as a commercial asset to the British economy and for its services to the world metal industry.
Economist Intelligence Unit, The London Metal Exchange, London 1958, p. 163
Few parts of the City have changed so radically as the commodity markets.
W.M. Clarke, The City in the World Economy, London 1965, p. 79
The prime purpose of futures markets is to provide protection against unpredictable price fluctuations — thus enabling forward trading with reduced risks.
Financial Times, 26 July 1985
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Notes
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© 1992 Ranald C. Michie
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Michie, R.C. (1992). Commercial City. In: The City of London. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12322-3_3
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