The City of London and Its Financial Power

The British Empire had sunk, leaving hardly a trace behind,

but the City of London adapted and survived.

The City of London, London's financial district, is a

peculiar place.

It has been called a city within a city, a state within a state.

It is run by an organization called the City of London Corporation,

a private company that performs all the functions of a local

council with a private police force and private courts.

Those of you who aren't from the UK, some of you even who are, uh, might not be

aware just how weird a thing the little City of

London is within the big ci- the big London.

The City of London is, uh, an, a, a separate entity

to, uh, the wider London, and it has its own,

uh, head, the Lord Mayor, who's distinct from the mayor, uh, who

runs the rest of London.

Every November, the city stages the Lord Mayor's Show,

the world's

oldest civic procession.

The City of London has long had this curious legal status

because, um, back in 1066 when William the Conqueror came over,

the city was one of the only portions of England that he failed to conquer,

and he struck a deal with the city in 1067 that allowed them to continue

functioning.

To this day, the City of London is exempt from numerous laws that

govern the rest of Britain.

Its political system derives from the Middle Ages.

The city's electorate is dominated not by its residents,

but by the

private businesses operating within the city.

Its Lord Mayor is selected by the heads of medieval guilds.

They have a, a representative in the House of Commons

called the Remembrancer. Apart from the clerks of the court,

of the House of

Commons, he's the only unelected person there.

All other lobbyists have to stop, you know, in the lobby.

They're not allowed-

Yeah

... past the lobby.

The City of London has a permanent representative in the House of Commons,

whose role is to report back to the City of London Corporation and

to lobby Parliament on behalf of the city.

The Corporation of London, clearly,

it's a uniquely unique and interesting phenomenon

that should have attracted, uh, many political scientists, political

economists, and economists.

But I don't know of anyone who has studied systematically the

Corporation of London and its impact

on policy

or economic policy,

so we can only surmise.

Some people,

uh, assume or surmise that the Corporation of London

is extremely

powerful

and is able, in one way or another, to shape,

uh, British policy, particularly with in financial matters.

Clement Attlee, the prime minister after the Second World

War, um, ha- had,

had something to say about the City of London Corporation.

He did.

So, yes.

Yeah. So over and over again, we have seen that there

is in this country another

power than that which has its seat at Westminster.

The City of London, a convenient term for a collection of

financial

interests, is able to assert itself against the

government of the

country. Those who control money can pursue a

policy at

home and abroad contrary to that which has been decided by the

people.

At the

heart of the City of London stands the Bank of England.

The Bank of England is not just a central bank, it is also a

financial regulator.

At the demise of empire, the Bank of England used this regulatory

authority to help attract the world's banks to London.

In 1972, the Bank of England-

And although the Prime Minister of England, Clement Attlee, nationalized

the Bank of England after the World War II in

1946, it doesn't mean that all the debt that the British people

owed after World War II was wiped off.

Because when you look at this graph, you can see that the national debt of the

British people has continued, and it was at a particularly high level after

World War II when England was virtually bankrupt.

And so let's have a look now at the private ownership of the Bank of

England, because this is another ruse, and many people think the Bank of

England belongs to the people of England, when really it still belongs to the

bankers. So let's go and have a look at this plaque outside the

Bank of England

that tells us that.

Bank of England here.

And it even says here

on this

pyramid-y thing,

it says...

I'll just bring it. It says, "Close to the pa- this panel is the Royal

Exchange, which contains a new retail development,

Mansion House, the

official home of the Lord Mayor of London during his year in office, and the Bank

of England, founded in 1694 as a private

company, is now exercising the functions of a state

bank." It says it

here.

Get close to it.

It's here where my finger is. Bank of England,

founded in 1694 as a private company.

Founded

as a private company and now exercising

the functions of a state bank. It doesn't say it's

a government-owned state bank. It clearly says in black and white,

"Founded in 1694 as a private company and now

exercising the functions of a state bank."

That is a private company

that issues notes that are worthless bits of paper and that

are backed

up by nothing.

And so the Bank of England is privately owned

and carries on the functions of a

state bank, and this is what happened during nationalization,

was that the

government stepped in and began running the Bank of England,

and that's the only

nationalization that's taken place, whereas all the debts still belong

to the Jewish bankers.