Throughout the twentieth century the issue of financial elites has been present in the debates over the relationship between the British government and the City of London, from J. A. Hobson's Imperialism (1902) to Will Hutton's The State We're In (1995). Admittedly these two works, and others in the intervening period, are more generally concerned with financial power, with the City's pervasive influence at the economic, social and political levels, and with its ability to promote its own interests. Yet this power has been embodied by a group of people – the merchants, bankers, financiers, stockbrokers and other business people in charge of the major financial institutions operating in the Square Mile, in other words the financial elites. Assessing these two aspects involves a difference in genre. It is one thing to analyse the political influence of the City of London, even as expressed by its leading protagonists. It is another to conduct a social analysis of the main characteristics displayed by this group, in terms of background, education, network of relationships, business interests, political leanings, and cultural values. Both approaches have been combined to a greater or lesser extent in a number of studies. Nevertheless, social analysis of an elite group does not automatically translate into an explanation of its power to influence. This discrepancy must be borne in mind, given both the general questions raised in this volume and the fact that financial elites will be considered in this essay from a social point of view.