This book was written to mark the bicentenary of Pictet & Cie, Geneva's large private bank. Among other events, the partners wanted to commemorate this anniversary by publishing an academic work that would contribute to banking and financial history. This desire to support a scholarly project reflects a broadness of outlook, characteristic of the Genevan humanist tradition, which is probably not unconnected with their bank's extraordinary longevity. I suggested to them that I write a history of the main international financial centres over the last two centuries, an important topic that had interested me for a long time and that I had broached in some of my publications, but that, oddly enough, had not yet been the subject of a comprehensive historical study. I would like to thank the Banque Pictet's partners, especially Ivan Pictet and Claude Demole, for giving me the opportunity to write such a book and, hopefully, to help fill this gap.

The interest aroused by the book called for a paperback edition. However, the financial meltdown which engulfed all financial centres from the summer of 2007 called for some updating: the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s could not simply be ignored. Accordingly, a new section has been added to the last chapter, providing a necessarily provisional account of what actually took place and attempting to make some sense of the events. In the same way, the final part of the conclusion dealing with possible future developments of international financial centres had to be rewritten: I had not foreseen a massive crisis as a likely scenario – very few had in late 2004. Its effect on the leading international financial centres will briefly be discussed.