In one sense, each growing economy in Europe adapted its own banking to its particular needs. Britain, the leading 19th century nation in Europe, developed its private banking structure for the needs of colonial trade: long-term capital investment opportunities abroad. Germany, on the other hand, developed its banking structure with the purpose of 'catching up'.

Money was to become the lifeblood of the industrialised world. This lifeblood would require a heart to pump the money around. An understanding of money, finance and banking is at the very centre of understanding our capitalist world to this day. In the 19th century, the monetary system was the servant of industry, but over time the monetary system became the master of industry. This blog focuses on money, markets, and banking in the 19th century.

Industrialisation during the 19th century historically changed the world for all the people living in France Holland the UK and the USA; by the end of the century city living and industrial work had become the new normal. Japan and Germany followed in the 2nd half of the century. At the beginning in 1800, the world’s populations had been predominantly rural: by 1900 one hundred years later the few wealthy independent European and American nations had become mainly urban. The processes of manufacture and transport had vitally altered everyone’s lives. Even the understanding of time itself had been altered.

The growth of 19th century manufacturing was built on the back of Enslaved People, the taxes of Indian peasants and the subsequent impoverishment of the Indian peoples. Enslaved peoples provided cotton, the raw material, from which industrial textile manufacturing became the leading product of the industrial revolution. The money derived from Indian taxpayers became the backbone of the City of London.