London and Paris as International Financial Centres in the Twentieth Century

London and Paris, the world's two leading financial centres in the nineteenth century, experienced differing fortunes during the twentieth century. While London remained an international financial centre, Paris' influence declined. Yet over the last twenty years deregulation, internationalization, and the advent of the single currency have reactivated their competition in ways reminiscent of their old rivalry before the First World War. This book provides a long-term perspective on the development of each centre, with special attention devoted to the pre-1914 years and to the last decades of the twentieth century, in order to contrast these two eras of globalization. The chapters include both archive-based and synthetic surveys and are written by the leading specialists of the field. This comparison between Europe's two leading capital cities will also provide new insights into two important subjects: the political economy of Britain and France in the twentieth century, and the history of international financial centres. As much as a comparison between London and Paris as international financial centres, this book is an Anglo-French comparison; in other words, it considers, through the prism of finance, several aspects of the two countries' economic, business, social, and political histories. It includes contributions from leading banking, financial, and economic historians, and will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of Financial and Economic History, and the role of London and Paris in particular. Contributors to this volume - Mae Baker, Lecturer at the University of Leeds Hubert Bonin, Professor at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Bordeaux Eric Bussiere, Professor at the University of Paris IV Youssef Cassis, Professor at the University Pierre Mendes France of Grenoble and a Visiting Fellow at the Business History Unit, London School of Economics Michael Collins, Professor at the University of Leeds Philip Cottrell, Professor at the University of Leicester Olivier Feiretag, Lecturer at the University of Paris X-Nanterre Niall Ferguson, Professor at the University of Oxford Marc Flandreau, Professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris Francois Gallice, Researcher at the University of Paris X-Nanterre Ranald Michie, Professor at the University of Durham Alain Plessis, Professor Emeritus at the University Paris X-Nanterre Richard Roberts, Reader at the University of Sussex Samir Saul, Professor at the University of Montreal Catherine Schenk, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow Andre Straus, Research Fellow at the CNRS