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of the industrial revolution, which had made the empire both necessary and possible; empire was, to a large degree, a story about industrial capitalism and trade. But in 1993 the economic historians P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins transformed this view with a two-volume book, British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688–1914 (London: Longman, 1993) and British Imperialism, Crisis and Deconstruction 1914–1990 (London: Longman, 1993), which recast the empire as something that was most fundamentally a story about financial capital, international credit, and the City of London, the governor of the imperial engine. This imperial connection, which will become clear as the book progresses, is of paramount importance to any understanding of the offshore system and of the City of London, the governor of a large part of the offshore engine.

19.Martin A. Sullivan, “Offshore Explorations: Jersey,” Tax Notes, October 23, 2007; “Offshore Explorations: Isle of Man,” Tax Notes, November 5, 2007; “Offshore Explorations: Guernsey,” Tax Notes, October 10, 2007. These are considered conservative estimates: Offshore bank deposits in Jersey alone were worth $800 billion in mid-2009; Colin Powell, chairman of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, estimated in 2009 that trusts in Jersey alone might involve another $300 to 400 billion.

20.Seven, including the Falkland Islands and the British Antarctic Territory, are not havens. Ascension Island, which houses highly secretive U.S. and British military bases, serves a quasi-imperial purpose as a base to help project British power overseas.

21.For example, 2003 saw the collapse of major money-laundering trials in which a key witness was forced to admit that he had been serving as an MI6 agent.

22.The Cayman Islands reported to the IMF $750 billion in portfolio assets (that is, loans, securities, and other profitable things) in 2008. This quantity of assets ought to be matched, more or less, by similarly sized liabilities (deposits and other obligations) on the other side of the balance sheet—yet these added up to $2.2 trillion for the Cayman Islands, three times as much as the assets. See David Bain, “IMF Finds ‘Trillions’ in Undeclared Wealth,” Wealth Bulletin, March 15, 2010. The IMF report is Philip R. Lane and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, “Cross-Border Investment in Small International Financial Centers,” IMF Working Paper 10/38, February 2010.

23.See Palan et al., Tax Havens, p. 11. The authors estimate that the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, plus the former empire, account for 37 percent of all banking liabilities and 35 percent of all banking assets; the City of London accounts for 11 percent. Even back in 1996, the U.S. lawyer John Moscow estimated that apart from Switzerland and Liechtenstein, nearly every offshore dirty-money center was British run or controlled. See Chris Blackhurst and Clare Garner, “A Trillion Dollars in Dirty Money Keeps Island Tax Havens Afloat,” The Independent, September 11, 1996.

24.The term “British Spiderweb” was coined, I believe, by Jim Henry, author of Blood Bankers.

25.See, for example, “Britain Imposes Direct Rule on Turks and Caicos,” Associated Press, August 14, 2009. Plans are now afoot to prepare new elections for 2011.

26.Although Ireland lies in the Eurozone, its emergence as a secrecy jurisdiction in the late 1980s was substantially linked to interests in the City of London, and its Wild West spirit of laissez-faire financial market regulation—the turning of a blind eye to nefarious activities and potential risks—was inspired by British, not continental European, models. It is also part of a British sphere of influence.

27.“Users of ‘Tax Havens’ Abroad Batten Down for Political Gale,” New York Times, February 26, 1961.

28.Next came Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, and Wachovia Corp., with 115, 59, and 57 tax haven subsidiaries, respectively. See “Large U.S. Corporations and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries in Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or Financial Privacy Jurisdictions,” U.S. Government Accountability Office,