Saving the City: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914

In London, the world's foremost financial centre, the week before the outbreak of the First World War saw the breakdown of the markets, culminating with the closure for the first time ever of the London Stock Exchange on Friday 31 July. Outside the Bank of England a long anxious queue waited to change bank notes for gold sovereigns. Bankers believed that a run on the banks was underway, threatening the collapse of the banking system-all with the nation on the eve of war. This book tells the extraordinary, and largely unknown, story of this acute financial crisis that surged over London and around the globe. Drawing on diaries, letters, and memoirs of participants and a wide range of press coverage, as well as government and bank archives, it presents a lively and colourful account of a remarkable episode in financial and social history, outlining the drama of the collapse and the measures taken to contain it. This crucial and compelling 'missing piece' in the world's financial development was the first true global financial crisis, and proved a landmark in the management of financial crises.

Table of Contents:
PART I BREAKDOWN ; 1. House Closed ; 2. Bolt from the Blue ; 3. Worst Days ; PART II CONTAINMENT ; 4. Bankers Scheme ; 5. Treasury View ; 6. War Conference ; 7. Banks Reopen ; PART III REVIVAL AND REPRESSION ; 8. Cold Storage ; 9. Fixing the Foreign Exchanges ; 10. House Open ; PART IV PERSPECTIVES ; 11. Global Financial Crisis ; 12. Perspectives and Conclusions

About the Author :
Richard Roberts is Professor of Contemporary History at the Institute of Contemporary British History at King's College London. He has held fellowships at Downing College, Cambridge, Princeton University, and the Bank of England. He specialises in financial history and is author of many publications in this field including histories of City investment bank Schroders (1992) and consortium bank Orion (2001). His contemporary studies Wall Street (2002) and The City (2008) are published by The Economist.

Review :
Roberts has made a distinguished and scholarly contribution to the genre of financial history, and yet his account of the various back-room negotiations between politicians, bureaucrats and bankers has all the elements of a thriller. Christopher Silvester, Spear's He [Roberts] has been able to call on a range of perceptive and wonderfully written financial journalism in order to track the details of events. This is supplemented by some unpublished memoirs and letters, and books written during the ten or so years after the crisis. Using them has enabled him to explore dark corners as well as well-lit rooms, and the result is a convincing and important contribution to national and international history. Richard Robert's analysis shows the interrelationship of politics and finance: Saving the City is an important book, both thought-provoking and entertaining. Kathleen Burk, The Times Literary Suppliment The only major book-lenght treatment of this topic to appear since 1915. Jamie Martin, London Review of Books This is a formidable piece of scholarship and should be in the Christmas stockings of George Osborne, Danny Alexander and Ed Balls. Keith Simpson, iaindale.com Lucid and masterly. The story of a financial crisis, when told with the knowledge and skill of a Richard Roberts, is a mix of detective story (the gory but fascinating details of what happened and who did it) and compelling political and social history. From the Foreword by Lord King of Lothbury, former Governor of the Bank of England If Roberts's book had been available at the time, [many people in the Bank of England] would immediately have realised that the 2007-08 crisis was not simply one of the liquidity of the financial system but also of solvency." William Keegan, The Observer A timely reminder that if we don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past then we first need to understand them. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer A fascinating insight into a half-forgotten crisis. Written with a verve and clarity that any reader can savour. Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong and A Week in December A masterly account of the financial crisis that brought the first great age of globalization to a close. Richard Roberts's narrative is finely wrought and wholly absorbing. John Plender, Columnist, Financial Times This is a superbly researched, calmly authoritative, and finely told account of a momentous episode in modern financial history. Richard Roberts has a formidable grasp of the technical intricacies but is also fully alive to the human dimension, as politicians, mandarins, bankers, and others jostle in not always seemly pursuit of self-preservation as well as the greater good. The drama of 1914 may until now have been the "unknown" financial crisis; that is assuredly the case no longer. David Kynaston, author The City of London, 1815-2000. Richard Roberts is an authority on the history of the City of London. He has brought his great expertise to the hitherto largely unexplored financial crisis of 1914. A masterly study brought to life with extensive quotation from contemporaries. Forrest Capie, Professor Emeritus of Economic History, Cass Business School. Professor Roberts has a light touch in this complex landscape. International Financing Review