One other reason for the financial supremacy of London lies in the
enormous wealth of Britain. For now almost half a century Britain has
been importing far more than she has been exporting, and the total
volume of her import and export trade is more than quadruple what it
was in 1850. The consequence is that not only has Britain been
accumulating wealth, but she has been accumulating it enormously. Her
accumulated savings, therefore, have been at the world's disposal, and
she has had so much money to invest that she has become the creditor
nation of the world. The total investments of British capital in
foreign countries (in loans, railways, manufacturing syndicates, etc.)
is estimated to be the enormous sum of over $10,500,000,000. London,
of course, is the investing, controlling, and supervising
counting-house for all this capital. And as so much British capital
finds in London its place of investment, it naturally follows that
nearly all the remaining unemployed capital of the world, that seeks
investment, either is sent to London as a market, or else assumes a
price for investment elsewhere which the current price of capital in
London warrants it to assume. The London market rate of capital,
therefore, determines its market rate in every other commercial centre
of the world.