Hobson, an economist, argued in the book that global finance was controlled in Europe by “men of a single and peculiar race, who have behind them many centuries of financial experience” , who were “in a unique position to control the policy of nations”.
He added, in case anyone was unclear as to his meaning: “Does anyone seriously suppose that a great war could be undertaken by any European State, or a great State loan subscribed, if the house of Rothschild and its connections set their face against it?”
The Labour leader described Hobson’s book as “a great tome”, and praised the writer’s “brilliant, and very controversial at the time” analysis of the “pressures” behind western, and in particular British, imperialism at the turn of the 20th century. Some of the passages about the popular press, said Corbyn, were “correct and prescient” — arguments in which Hobson declared that “great financial houses” have “control which they exercise over the body of public opinion through the Press”.
