23 Barty, p 26; Tett, Fool’s Gold, pp 282–3; Court minutes, 15 Oct 2008; Mervyn King, ‘Speech’, 21 Oct 2008.
24 Times, 16 May 2013, 15 Oct 2008; Standpoint, June 2009, pp 40–5, Oct 2011, Dec 2015, pp 42–5.
25 House of Commons Treasury Committee, Fixing LIBOR, Volume I (Aug 2012), p 25; Treasury Committee, Re-appointment, q 80; Times, 1 Sept 2015; FT, 11 Dec 2008; Treasury Committee, Fixing, pp 44–5, 47–50; Times, 18 July 2012; Treasury Committee, Fixing, pp 56–8.
26 Court minutes, 13 Nov 2008; Times, 5 Dec 2008; Daily Telegraph, 5 Dec 2008; Court minutes, 12 Feb 2009; FT, 27 Feb 2009; Economist, 7 March 2009; King, Alchemy, pp 182–3; Financial World, May 2009, p 10; Standpoint, June 2009, pp 44–5 (Tim Congdon).
27 Pym, Inside, p 187; Conaghan, pp 288–9; Guardian, 22 May 2012; Times, 22 May 2012.
28 Barty, pp 36–7; Conaghan, pp 245–7; Jacomb, p 1; Guardian, 21 July 2009; FT, 17 June 2010; Times, 17 June 2010; Spectator, 27 June 2009; Evening Standard, 21 July 2009, 17 June 2010; Independent, 2 Aug 2010; Guardian, 15 Sept 2010.
29 Court minutes, 16 April 2008; Treasury Committee, Re-appointment, q 44; Court minutes, 12 Feb 1009; BEQB, 2009 (2), p 139 (Paul Tucker); Court minutes, 30 April 2009; Mervyn King, ‘Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet’, 17 June 2009, pp 7–8; House of Commons Treasury Committee, Banking Crisis: Regulation and Supervision (July 2009), qq 117–18; Mervyn King ‘Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet’, 16 June 2010, pp 5–7; House of Commons Treasury Committee, Financial Regulations (Feb 2011), qq 20, 25.
30 Paul Tucker, ‘A New Regulatory Relationship’, May 2013 speech, pp 3–6; Guardian, 30 March 2013; FT, 21 June 2013.
31 Times, 29 July 2010, 26 Oct 2011; Pym, Inside, pp 176–7; Guardian, 7 March 2013; Independent, 15 June 2012; FT, 16 June 2012; Guardian, 1 Aug 2013, 28 March 2013, 25 July 2013.
32 Michael Joyce et al, ‘The financial market impact of quantitative easing’, BEQB, 2010 (3), p 205; Daily Telegraph, 8 March 2010 (Roger Bootle); Economist, 11 Feb 2012, 1 Oct 2011; Times, 20 Feb 2012; New Statesman, 5 March 2012 (Robert Skidelsky and Felix Martin); Guardian, 25 May 2012.
33 Guardian, 28 Sept 2012; Prospect, June 2013, p 44 (George Magnus); FT, 15 June 2013; Prospect, Nov 2010, p 36; Times, 29 Oct 2011; Spectator, 11 Feb 2012 (Nassim Taleb); Prospect, June 2013, p 44.
34 Evening Standard, 18 Jan 2011 (Anthony Hilton); Times, 24 Jan 2011; Guardian, 18 Feb 2011; Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2011; Guardian, 16 June 2011; Economist, 15 June 2013.
35 Times, 12 Dec 2012 (David Wighton); Guardian, 23 Jan 2013, 16 March 2013; FT, 21 March 2013; Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2013 (Philip Aldrick).
36 Financial World, July 2007, p 11; OL, Dec 1997, p 145; Elizabeth Hennessy, ‘The Georgian era at the Bank of England’, CB, 2002/3 (4), p 41; OL, Dec 2006, p 126 (John Footman), March 2004, p 11; Valerie Hamilton, ‘Moll Flanders and the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’ (University of Warwick PhD, 2013), p 50.
37 CB, Nov 1998, p 8, 2002/3 (4), p 3; OL, March 2006, p 16; Court minutes, 16 Jan 2008; FT, 10 Aug 2013 (Gillian Tett); Guardian, 19 Nov 2012; Times, 22 June 2013; Guardian, 25 July 2013.
38 OL, March 1998, p 12; Court minutes, 2008; Andrew G. Haldane, ‘The Bank and the banks’, 18 Oct 2012 speech, pp 10–11.
39 BEQB, Autumn 2004, p 350 (Mervyn King); Independent, 21 Oct 2009; Economist, 30 Oct 2010; Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2011; Peston, Fix, pp 436–7; Guardian, 29 June 2013.
40 House of Commons Treasury Committee, Accountability of the Bank of England (Nov 2011), Vol I, pp 52–3; Guardian, 8 Nov 2011; FT, 27 April 2012 (Samuel Brittan), 5 May 2012, 19 June 2013; Barty, p 46.
41 Evening Standard, 7 Feb 2014 (James Ashton); Treasury Committee, Accountability, pp 58-9; Times, 18 Jan 2012; Emma Murphy, ‘Changes to the Bank of England’, BEQB, 2013 (1), p 27; Evening Standard, 7 Feb 2014.
42 Guardian, 8 Nov 2011; Financial World, Dec 2011, p 10 (Alex Brummer); Mervyn King, ‘Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet’, 17 June 2009, p 5; Neil Irwin, The Alchemists (2013), pp 275–6; Guardian, 25 June 2009.
43 Times Literary Supplement, 21 Jan 2011 (Peter Riddell); Mervyn King, ‘Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet’, 16 June 2010, p 4; FT, 26 June 2010, 16 Sept 2010, 10 Nov 2010; House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, Meeting with the Governor of the Bank of England (Dec 2010), q 14; FT, 26 Nov 2010; Guardian, 19 Feb 2011; FT, 1 May 2012; King, Alchemy, p 186.
44 Guardian, 19 April 2012; Evening Standard, 14 June 2012, 19 Jul 2012; Spectator, 18 Aug 2012; Economist, 15 Sept 2012; Guardian, 8 Oct 2012; Economist, 24 Nov 2012; FT, 27 Nov 2012; Times, 27 Nov 2012; Daily Telegraph, 27 Nov 2012; Times, 2 July 2013.
45 BEQB, Nov 1999, p 411 (Mervyn King).
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the following institutions, in addition to the Bank of England itself, for allowing me to use their archives: Barclays Bank; The Baring Archive; The Federal Reserve Bank of New York; HSBC Holdings; The Rothschild Archive; The Royal Bank of Scotland; Sir John Soane’s Museum.
A lot of people helped to make this book a reality, and I apologise in advance for any inadvertent omissions.
Outside the Bank, I am grateful to an array of archivists and fellow historians for their help and encouragement: Melanie Aspey; Bernard Attard; Forrest Capie; Sally Cholewa; Chris Collins; Valerie Hamilton; Clara Harrow; Elizabeth Hennessy; Boyd Hilton; Pamela Hunter; Harold James; James Mortlock; Susan Palmer; Julie Sager; Hiroki Shin; Maria Sienkiewicz; Tina Staples; Alison Turton; Sophie Volker. I am especially grateful to Anne Murphy, who knows more than anyone about the eighteenth-century Bank and generously put her expertise at my disposal.
The role of direct personal testimony is inevitably limited in the history of such an old institution, but the following kindly found time to discuss with me the Bank’s more recent history: Andrew Bailey; Ed Balls; Sir Charles Bean; Sir David Clementi; Sir Howard Davies; Christopher Fildes; Paul Fisher; John Footman; Andy Haldane; William Keegan; Lord King of Lothbury; Rachel Lomax; Ian Plenderleith; Brian Quinn; Sir David Scholey; Sir Paul Tucker.
More generally, I am indebted to many inside the Bank. It is over a quarter of a century since I began visiting there for research purposes, and from the old days I have fond memories of all the help I received from (among others) Kath Begley, Phil Davies, Henry Gillett, John Keyworth, Sarah Millard and Elizabeth Ogden. For this book, I am grateful to Andrew Butterworth, Frances Cassidy, Shahid Nazir and Fiona Platten at the Information Centre for their assistance, but given the archives-based nature of the project my greatest debt is to the Archive team: Mike Anson; Lorna Williams; Ben White; Margherita Orlando (a special ‘thank you’ for her resourcefulness in coming up with files I only half-knew about); Rachael Muir; Holly Waughman (who also helped with the pictures, as did the Bank’s Chris Peacock, Bryony Leventhall, Jenni Adam and Eleanor Paton); Joe Hewson; Sara Brimble. Huge credit goes to Mike and his colleagues for making the Archive an unfailingly pleasant as well as professional environment in which to research.
Also at the Bank, the task fell to John Footman to oversee the book from contract to publication, and he has done so (assisted by his secretary, Sharon Hughes) with patience and humour in addition to insight and objectivity, for all of which qualities I am grateful indeed.
Further heartfelt thanks go to Amanda Howard (Superscript Editorial Services) for her transcribing of my tapes; to Peter James for his copy-edit; to Catherine Best for her proofreading; to Alan Rutter for his index; to Georgia Garrett and Madeleine Dunnigan at my agents Rogers Coleridge & White (where Deborah Rogers was closely involved with the project until her still much-lamented death in 2014); and at Bloomsbury, where Bill Swainson commissioned the book, to Michael Fishwick (my editor), Marigold Atkey and Sarah Ruddick, who as a trio have made the publishing experience enjoyable as well as efficient.
Finally, the deepest thanks go to my wife Lucy, including for her help with research and checking transcriptions. Her great-great-great-grandfather was John Horsley Palmer, one of the most influential governors of the
Bank’s first two centuries; her great-great-grandfather was Edward Howley Palmer, described by Clapham as a ‘capable’ governor; this history could not have been completed without her.
A Note on the Author
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written nineteen books, including The City of London, a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and WG’s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentlemen v. Players match at Lord’s in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945–51; Family Britain, 1951–57; and Modernity Britain, 1957–62, the first three volumes in a projected series covering the history of post-war Britain (1945–79) under the collective title ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’. He lives in London.
Index
A Brief Account of the Intended Bank of England (Paterson) here
‘A Dirty Crossing’ (Tenniel cartoon) here
‘A Paralytic Bank of England’ (Wilson) here
A peep into the old rag shop in Threadneedle Street (print) here
A Short Account of the Bank of England (Godfrey) here
A Tract on Monetary Reform (Keynes) here
Abbott, Diane here, here, here
Abedi, Agna Hassan here
Abell, Sir George here, here
Abingdon Old bank here
Abney, Sir Thomas here
Abramson, Daniel here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Abu Dhabi here, here
Abyssinian war here
Accepting Houses Committee here, here
accountability here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Accountability of the Bank of England (Treasury Committee) here
Accountant’s Department here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Accountant’s Office here, here, here
accounting machines here
accounts here, here, here
Acres, W. Marston here, here
Act of Union, 1707 here
Adams, Henry here
Addis, Sir Charles here, here, here, here, here, here
Addison, Joseph here
ADR (American depository receipt) shares here
Advisory Council of Directors and Staff here
AIG here
Aix-la-Chapelle Treaty of here
Alcoa here
Aldington, Lord here
Aldrick, Philip here
Alexander I, Tsar here
Alford, Roger here, here, here
Algiers here
Ali, Tariq here
Alladin, B. Z. here
Allan, Alex here
Allardyce, Alexander here
Allen, Sir Douglas here, here, here, here, here
Allen, Maurice here, here, here
Allen, William (‘Bill’) here, here
Althaus, Sir Nigel here
Altmann, Ros here
Aluminium War here, here
American trade crisis, 1836-1837 here
American War of Independence here, here, here, here
Amery, Julian here
Amery, Leo here, here
An Address to the Proprietors of the Bank (Allardyce) here
An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (H Thornton) here
An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce (Anderson) here
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Smith) here
Andersen, Arthur here
Anderson, Adam here
Anderson, Sir Alan here, here, here, here
Anderson, Sir John here, here
Andrews, Ken here, here
Angell, Norman here
Angliae Tutamen: or the Safety of England here
Anglo-French treaty, 1986 here
Anne, Queen here, here
Annual Managed Derivatives Industry Conference, 1994 here
annual management here
annual report here
Anrep, Boris here
anti-Bank broadsheets and pamphlets here, here, here, here, here
anti-inflation White Paper, 1975 here
anti-Semitism here, here, here, here
Antwerp here
Arab–Israeli War here
Arbuthnot, Mrs here
Architects’ Club here
Architects’ Journal here, here
Argentina here, here
Arguments against Prolonging the Bank, Showing the Dangerous Consequences of it to our Constitution and Trade here
arms and ammunition here
Armstrong, Whitworth & Co here
Armstrong, Sir William here
Ashridge Management College here
Ashton, James here
Aslett, Robert here
Asquith, H. H. here, here, here, here
Asset Purchase Facility here
Association of British Bankers here
Association of Chambers of Commerce here
Aston Martin here
Attard, Bernard here
Attlee, Clement here, here, here
Audit Committee here
Audit Department here
Austen, Jane here
Australia here, here, here, here
Austria here, here, here, here
Austrian Loan Guarantee Bill here
authorisation, two-tier system here, here
Availability and Deployment of Economists’ meeting here
Ayr Bank here
Babington Smith, Michael here
Bagehot, Walter here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Lombard Street here, here
Bailey, Andrew here
Baker, D. J. here
Baker, Herbert here, here
Baker, Sir William here
balance of payments here, here, here, here
Balance Section here
Baldwin, Stanley here, here, here
Balgonie, Lord here
Balls, Ed here, here, here, here, here
Balogh, Thomas here, here
Bank Act, 1833 here
Bank Act, 1946 here, here
Bank Black here
Bank Buildings here
Bank Charter Act, 1844 here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
First World War here
Select Committee, 1858 here, here
suspension here, here, here, here
Bank Contract stock here
Bank for International Settlements here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Bank for Reconstruction and Development here
Bank Fortnight, The here
Bank ledgers here
bank loans, SMEs here
Bank Note Office here, here, here, here
banknotes here, here, here, here, here
£1 note, 1978 here
1824 here
acceptance here
blue £5 note here, here
convertibility here, here
counterfeit here, here, here
D Series here
denominations here
‘E’ series here
experiment of £1 here, here
fiduciary issue limit here, here
final £1 note here
first coloured here
First World War here
growth of circulation here
guarantee here
issue in the provinces here
issues here, here
issuing function here
near-monopoly here
printing contracted out here
provincial here
returned from circulation here
security here
signature here
surface printing here
watermarked paper here
Bank of America here, here
Bank of Amsterdam here
Bank of Canada here
Bank of England
accountability here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
activi
ties, late eighteenth century here
architects here
attacks, 1930s here
authorised capital here
authority here, here, here, here, here
balances, late 1860s here
Bank/City relationship here, here, here, here, here
banking crisis, 2007-8 here
banking crisis performance reviews here
Bank/Treasury relationship here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
bicentenary here
branches here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
business here
capital enlargement, 1697 here
capital-raising process here
central bank status here, here
character here
Churchill on here
Churchill visits here
collective opinion here
colonial loans here
Common Seal here
communication skills here, here
conflicted policies here
consequences of banking crisis, 2007-8 here
consolidation, 1697 here
co-operation with other national banks here
core purposes here
credibility here, here
culture of secrecy here
day-to-day business here
decision to move to Threadneedle Street here
discipline here
efficiency here
EMU policy here
equality of opportunity here
external communications here
fire, 1838 here
foundation here
functions here, here
funding for lending scheme here
governance here, here
government loans here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
imperialism here
impression of wealth here
independence here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
inefficiency here
introverted culture here
joint-stock status here, here
Lamont’s institutional reforms here
as lender of last resort here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
liquidity here
management style here, here
marginalised here
mid- to late nineteenth century here
nationalisation here, here, here
need for consistency here
note-issuing function here
opens for business here
in operation here
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