Forms of Capital and Their Relations

Abstract

As the commercial and financial centre of the world economic system, the City soon identified its interests with the defence of the conditions which it took to be the bases for the system’s existence and its own pre-eminent position within it. First of all, the City has never wavered in its support for free trade as a means of attempting to maximise the volume and velocity of global economic transactions. Relatedly, the City has always insisted that the operation of the markets in money, goods and capital should be free from external regulation by the state. Finally, for most of its history the City has given probably the greatest priority to the preservation of the value of money and, in particular, to ensuring that sterling (whether or not tied to gold) maintained its position — first as a stable reserve currency for the world monetary system, and second as a major vehicle for international economic transactions.