Mammon's Kingdom: an Essay on Britain, Now by David Marquand, review

Marquand suggests that British history over the past 100 years forms a parabola. Before the First World War, naked capitalism reigned. It was tamed throughout the half century that followed; Marquand views the Attlee government, and the 20 years that followed, with special and perhaps nostalgic fondness.

In his version of history everything went wrong once again in the Eighties, since when unconstrained capitalism has reconquered Britain. Marquand is every bit as critical, if not more so, of Tony Blair as he is of Margaret Thatcher. He also seems to have abandoned his early admiration for Cameron. He views contemporary Britain as an increasingly ghastly place dominated by billionaires and television personalities.

There is some truth in all of this and much to enjoy about the book. There are satisfying short intellectual biographies of Hayek, R H Tawney and the younger Mill, and a brilliant destruction of G E Moore. The conservative philosopher Edmund Burke, who argued against the Enlightenment proposition that men and women were driven by self-interest, is one of the heroes of this book, and Marquand makes his ideas relevant for the 21st century.

The book is likely to prove influential because it captures a national mood of irritation aimed at bankers and billionaires. Alongside Thomas Piketty’s work on inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, this is likely to form part of Ed Miliband’s summer reading list.

There is, however, one important problem with this book. Reading Marquand on finance is like reading Dawkins on religion. It is clear first that he dislikes it very much, and second that he knows little about it. This ignorance leads him into a series of elementary mistakes. For instance, he accuses Standard Chartered Bank of “financial skulduggery”, citing the bank’s $327 million fine for sanction busting.

But in reality Standard Chartered was not guilty of infringing any internationally recognised sanctions, and indeed was engaged in entirely legitimate trade with Iran. The United States, however, did not want Standard Chartered (or any other bank for that matter) to do business with the Islamic Republic. It unilaterally imposed its fine in a version of financial blackmail to deter other banks from following Standard’s example and to deepen Iranian isolation. Standard Chartered had no choice but to give in to this US bullying.

Marquand writes disapprovingly of the dominance enjoyed by the London metal market in non-ferrous metals, pointing out with irritation that its daily trade of dollars – 2.1 trillion – was twice the American figure. For most rational observers this is a stirring story of British success.

He shows zero interest in the history of the City of London, which for hundreds of years has been an expansive and dynamic force in international markets, during which time it has created prosperity not just for rich capitalists but also for tens of millions of ordinary people. Astonishingly, Marquand (normally so sensitive to history) displays no awareness of David Kynaston’s magnificent four-volume history of Britain’s financial centre.

This ignorance of finance means that sometimes this book descends into little more than a set of prejudices. Barring a hint at a property tax and a desire for more regulation, the professor’s very readable book is short of serious solutions, which means that its impact is less than it otherwise deserves.

Mammon’s Kingdom: an Essay on Britain, Now by David Marquand

288pp, Allen Lane, Telegraph offer price: £18 (PLUS £1.35 p&p) (RRP £20, ebook £8.49). Call 0844 871 1515 or see books.telegraph.co.uk

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