A centre for continental capitalists (5)
I believe the answer is:
paris
'a centre for continental capitalists' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'a centre for continental capitalists' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'alpha' (the Greek letter A).
'centre' says to take the centre.
'for' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'continental capitalists' becomes 'aris' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle letter of 'alpha' is 'p'.
'p'+'aris'='PARIS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for paris that I've seen before include "where he got plastered?" , "captivated Helen" , "investment resulted from his action" , "French capital - Trojan prince" , "'''I love ... in the springtime'' (Cole Porter) (5)'" .)