Jersey is not a recently-created tax haven; it is a community that has been able to live for centuries on low tax rates, which has subsequently attracted outside business. Ancient privileges given to islanders by successive British monarchs over the centuries gave the island the right to tax its own people. That is why the Island, which has few natural resources, has been able to prosper despite being in a fairly remote location in the Bay of Mont St. Michel.

Jersey has been an Island for approximately 8,000 years; it’s always been a trading island, in the Neolithic period Jersey men were trading with Brittany and the south coast of England. The Islands original name was Angia until the Vikings arrived in the 9th century and they named it Jersey.

Over the years, the Island's economy has proved to be resilient. At one stage, the production of knitwear reached such a scale that it threatened the island's ability to produce its own food, so laws were passed regulating who could knit and when.

The Islanders of Jersey also helped develop the Newfoundland fisheries, boats would leave Jersey in February or March, after a service in St Brelade's church, and wouldn't return until September or October. The Island became one of the largest shipbuilding areas in the British Isles, building more than 900 wooden vessels. In the late 19th century, local farmers benefited from the development of two products - the Jersey cow and the Jersey Royal.

The 20th century was dominated by the occupation of the Channel Islands by German troops (1940-1945), which saw about 8,000 Islanders evacuated, 1,200 deported to camps in Germany and more than 300 sentenced to prison or concentration camps in mainland Europe. Twenty died as a result. Liberation Day, May 9, is still marked as a public holiday. In the early 1960s, the industry, which was to have the most impact on the Island, started to develop. Today, the finance industry is the largest employer and by far the largest contributor to the exchequer.