ABSTRACTOne of the phenomena that accompanied the advance of the French Revolution and its armies throughout the European Continent in the 1790s was the flight of capital. Merchants and guild artisans, as well as aristocrats, had to turn to merchant bankers and use the existing international capital markets to remove the liquid part of their property beyond the reach of Revolutionary arms. There is good reason to believe that they were successful to a much greater degree than previously suspected, largely because the international capital markets of the time were larger and better organized than previously thought. Moreover, these capital movements from the Continent to Britain explain succinctly why the British Industrial Revolution took place during this period despite the large pressures of war expenditures and British government subsidies to Continental allies taking place at the same time. The repatriation of capital to the Continent from England after peace also helps explain the depression of British industry and incomes from 1815 through the financial crisis of 1825, although the role of British speculators was important too.