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The Rise and Fall of the City of Money Ray Perman

The Rise and Fall of the City of Money By Ray Perman

The Rise and Fall of the City of Money by Ray Perman


Condition - Very Good
Out of stock

Summary

This is the colourful story of how Edinburgh rose to be one of the top 10 financial centres in Europe - and how the crisis of 2008 decimated its banking, insurance and investment institutions. Written by award-winning journalist Ray Perman who has reported on the Edinburgh financial industry for 40 years.

The Rise and Fall of the City of Money Summary

The Rise and Fall of the City of Money: A Financial History of Edinburgh by Ray Perman

It started and ended with a financial catastrophe. The Darien disaster of 1700 drove Scotland into union with England, but spawned the institutions which transformed Edinburgh into a global financial centre. The crash of 2008 wrecked the city's two largest and oldest banks - and its reputation. In the three intervening centuries, Edinburgh became a hothouse of financial innovation, prudent banking, reliable insurance and smart investing. The face of the city changed too as money transformed it from medieval squalor to Georgian elegance.

This is the story, not just of the institutions which were respected worldwide, but of the personalities too, such as the two hard-drinking Presbyterian ministers who founded the first actuarially-based pension fund; Sir Walter Scott, who faced financial ruin, but wrote his way out of it; the men who financed American railways and eastern rubber plantations with Scottish money; and Fred Goodwin, notorious CEO of RBS, who took the bank to be the biggest in the world, but crashed and burned in 2008.

The Rise and Fall of the City of Money Reviews

'I loved Ray Perman's The Rise and Fall of the City of Money (Birlinn, RRPGBP25) a fabulous history of the crises and flashes of entrepreneurial brilliance that made Edinburgh the UK's second-biggest financial city. A meticulously researched book of stories about the people who rose and fell with the city - bank directors who ended up in jail, aristocrats who ended up broke, and clever investment managers who set up the firms your pension is probably still with today'

-- Merryn Somerset Webb, editor in chief of MoneyWeek * Selecting for the Financial Times Books of the Year, 2019) *

About Ray Perman

Ray Perman is a financial journalist who has reported for numerous publications, including the Financial Times. He is a former chief executive of the industry representative body, Scottish Financial Enterprise and a former director of the David Hume Institute.

Additional information

GOR010332053
9781780276236
1780276230
The Rise and Fall of the City of Money: A Financial History of Edinburgh by Ray Perman
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Birlinn General
20191010
336
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Rise and Fall of the City of Money