Reply to Youssef Cassis.

This article presents the author's reply to a comment about the integration of merchant bankers with the indigenous landholding aristocracy in London, England. Physician Youssef Cassis's comment must suggest to readers who have not immersed themselves in the details of this subject that there is an unbridgeable chasm between us. I see the difference as one of approach and emphasis. I never disputed that some bankers moved in aristocratic circles, but must maintain that the continuing enterprise and vitality of the city of London was the product of different cultures introduced by successive waves of ethnic minorities who settled there from the Huguenot to the Nazi period. That is to say that there are two concepts which are not mutually exclusive, which are the regular injection of alternative and competing cultures into an international business community, giving new pace and directions to a highly competitive international market, and successful merchant dynasties evolving into banking in the second, third of fourth generations and, in some instances, forming liaisons with the aristocracy as they sought more congenial life styles.