Time Line of London as a Global Financial Centre
800's: Anglo-Saxons take over an abandoned village and trading centre on River Thames named Ludenwic or "London Settlement."
1044: The Battle of Hastings: Duke William and the Normans cross the English Channel and defeat the Anglos. The battle officially establishes a new Monarch in England.
1096: Teaching begins at University of Oxford (later helps produce high skilled labor).
1100: Population of 80,000- help trade and commerce grow significantly in medieval times. Trade is organized into federations, which control city and Lord Mayor of London.
1209: Cambridge University is established (later helps produce high skilled labor).
1555: Trade expands outside Western Europe to Americas. Russia Company and British East India Company were established with Royal Charter.
1572: Spanish destroy city of Antwerp, making London the primary North Sea Port.
1605: Immigration increases causing the population to grow to 225,000.
1666: Set-back occurs with The Great Fire of London causing 60% of the city to be destroyed.
1688: Lloyds of London begins to operate at Edward Lloyd's Coffee House.
1693: Sir Isaac Newton Publish his works on Physics and Calculus. These publications help to ensure London as a center of the Enlightenment and aid in the advancement of Western Civilization.
1694: Bank of England is founded and receives a Royal Charter. The charter significantly helps London pass Amsterdam as world's leading financial centre. During this same time period, the British East India Company begins to expand its influence.
1700: London handles 80% of England's imports, 69% of exports, and 86% of re-exports.
1707: Act of Union passes, creating Kingdom of Great Britain with merging of Scottish and English parliaments.
1801: Population increases to 959,300, which makes it the largest city in Europe. The London Stock Exchange is founded this year at a coffee-shop (Later becomes a major factor in making London a global financial centre, primarily due to the trading of multiple international companies).
1817: David Ricardo publishes On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. This book introduced the idea of cooperative advantage in which Ricardo advocated that nations and individuals should concentrate on the activities they do best relative to other activities and trade accordingly. This made Ricardo a prime economic adviser to Parliament where he worked to remove tariffs and promote free trade among nations to increase the standard of living. This strategically place England ahead of isolationist nations by coming to embrace international trade.
1829: Robert Peel establishes a metropolitan police force. The nickname "bobbies" is created.
1831: Population increases to 1,655,000, which makes it the largest city in the world (Previously only the largest city in Europe).
1836: First railway is completed connecting London Bridge to Greenwich.
1855: Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) is created to help Londoners cope with massive expansion projects.
1860: Joseph Bazalgette leads MBW in building London sewage system, to combat The Great Stink of 1858.
1863: First lines of London Underground are completed.
1877: London Metal Exchange created.
1900: Population increases to 6.7 million.
1917: WW1 hurts London's infrastructure with German Zeppelin bombings.
1929: The Great Depression (known in the U.K. as "The Great Slump") hurts economy and puts unemployment at all time high (the high correlation between the US and UK economies is even more apparent today).
1939: London's population increases to 8.6 million.
1940: 71 air raids on London during WW2 again hurts city's infrastructure. 30,000 Londoners are killed by bombings, and tens of thousands of buildings are destroyed.
1948: Summer Olympics held at Wembley Stadium (this was a major chance for London to show the world it was recovering from the air raids of WWII).
1952: Great Smog of 1952 kills 4,000 people as smoke from burning coal lingers above city for 5 straight days. This caused the Clean Air Act to be enacted 4 years later.
1960: Immigration increases from Commonwealth countries changing the face of London with a more diverse culture.
1980: Population begins a slight decline, starting from WW2; turning point is at 6.8 million.
1986: Political differences between Ken Livingstone of the Greater London Council and Margaret Thatcher leads to abolition of the GCL. This leaves most of the powers regulated to the London Boroughs, and London is left as the only large city in the world without a central administration. The Big Bang also takes place this year, further solidifying the regulatory climate for future business transactions.
1997: Chancellor Exchequer, Gordon Brown, grants formal authority for the Bank of England to set short-term Interest rates. The act places the Bank of England on similar footing with the United States Federal Reserve.
2000: Tony Blair creates Greater London Authority, which is made up of a directly elected Mayor and London Assembly.
2005: London wins bid to host 2012 Olympics. Terrorist attacks occur the following day in the London Underground causing a slight economic set-back. However, the city responds quickly.
2007: Gordon Brown is elected the Prime Minister of England.
2008: Tony Blair takes an advisory post for JP Morgan.