This book is a major contribution to a controversial area of economic history and to the debate about the nature of British society in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Translated into English for the first time, it provides a detailed analysis of the banking community of London when the City was the undisputed financial center of the world. Attention is paid to the social origins, education careers, business interests and fortunes of its members, to the networks of relationships of its most important dynasties, as well as to the political influence of the world of banking.