Loading...
Publication
Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694–1844
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 696.66 KB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694, the
Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to
support the British private economy and to support an
increasingly centralised British state. The Bank helped
the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in the international economic order. In
this paper, we deploy recalibrated financial data to analyse
an evolving trajectory of connections between the British
economy, the state, and the Bank of England. We show how
these connections contributed to form an effective and efficient fiscal–naval state and promote the development of a
system of financial intermediation for the economy. This
symbiotic relationship became stronger after 1793. The evidence that we consider here shows that although the Bank was nominally a private institution and profits were paid to its shareholders, it was playing a public role well before Bagehot’s doctrine.
Description
Keywords
Bank of England National defence State-building institutions
Pedagogical Context
Citation
O'Brien, P.K. and Palma, N. (2023). Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694–1844. Economic History Review, 76 (1), pp. 305-329. (Published online 2 set) https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13191
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell