Fine a lot of money (7)

I believe the answer is:

capital

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'fine' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'a lot of money' is the wordplay.
'a lot of' becomes 'capita' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'money' becomes 'l' (L can mean 'pounds').
'capita'+'l'='CAPITAL'

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(Other definitions for capital that I've seen before include "Excellent - assets - first city" , "Madrid, say" , "Cardiff, say" , "Seed money" , "Hamilton, perhaps" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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