Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T17:25:15.849Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Amsterdam and London stock markets, 1800–25

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

Larry Neal
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Get access

Summary

London definitively replaced Amsterdam as the financial center of Europe during the period of war and revolution discussed in the preceding two chapters. Acworth described it thusly:

In 1792, Great Britain held a subordinate position in the financial system of Europe, the London money-market had yet to come into its own, and the movement of capital was still into and not out of England. In 1815, though the fact was scarcely appreciated at the time, the situation had radically changed. Amsterdam had fallen; and London had not only taken its place as the predominant financial market of Europe, but was able to play the part in a way that dwarfed the earlier efforts of the Dutch city.

Not surprisingly, the stock exchanges in both cities underwent substantial reorganizations in that period. Those in London reflected not only the growth in the volume of the traditional assets traded, the government funds, but also the growth in the number of traders and in a variety of new assets. New buildings were constructed to house the exchange's activities. Amsterdam, by contrast, found its numbers reduced, its financial assets reduced in number and quality, and its activities devoted increasingly to real estate transactions. In the course of that historic transformation of the two markets, it is not surprising that the tight links that had been established and maintained for a century between the two markets were substantially loosened. And it is not surprising that a rampant and expanding London market should forge new links that would secure its dominance in world finance through the next century.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Rise of Financial Capitalism
International Capital Markets in the Age of Reason
, pp. 223 - 230
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×