The last three chapters are very different and excellent. I will consider each in turn. Apropos the introduction to Dr K. Burk's essay, I am not yet prepared to write off the United States as being necessarily superseded by Japan – challenged yes, but the dollar remains a far more significant currency than the yen. True, America is now a debtor nation in international accounts – by official reports. And, true, Japan appears to be the world's leading creditor nation. Yet, as ultimately Dr Burk concludes, Tokyo is still far from being the global financial hub.

Dr Burk documents the rise of New York as a financial centre. Before the First World War, the United States was a debtor nation in international accounts, attracting more foreign capital than it invested abroad. At the eve of the First World War, it was the world's premier debtor nation. At the same time, it was starting to serve as a lender, and even more important, its companies were beginning – in fact on quite a substantial scale – to make foreign direct investments. The United States by the turn of the century was already the world's largest manufacturing country, an industrial colossus. The United States Steel Corporation had a capital of over $1 billion.

In the financial sphere superiority came later, with the First World War (1914–1918) the transition period; after 1918, the United States emerged as a creditor nation. The change was dramatic. The US economy was stimulated by the war; by contrast, the British economy was disrupted.