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When the Financial Times opened for business in 1888 London was the world’s preeminent financial centre. It had the most international banks, the largest capital markets, and the deepest money and gold markets. It backed projects all over the world, and most of world trade was financed by bills drawn on London. Supporting the critical mass of banks, insurers and investors was an army of solicitors, accountants and clerks.
What London had lacked, at least until the FT’s great rival Financial News was founded in 1884, was a ready provider of financial news. The FT famously set out to report “Without Fear and Without Favour”, and declared itself to be the friend of the honest financier, the respectable broker and the legitimate speculator; and the enemy of the closed stock exchange, the unprincipled promoter and the gambling operator. Perhaps as a consequence, its initial circulation was modest.
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