by James Grant
roles of, 32, 123, 174, 271
runs on, xvii, xxii, xxviii-xix, xxx, 29–30, 275, 278
savings accounts in, 137
shareholders of private banks, xix, xxii-xxiii, 26, 169, 268, 293–94
socialized financial risk, 123
systemic risks in, 281
as too big to fail, xviii, 123, 138, 167
and unlimited liability, 141
see also specific banks
Baring, Sir Francis, 166
Baring Brothers & Co., 166, 289
Barker, Henry John, 144, 146
Barrington, Emilie Wilson, 12, 97, 105, 108, 239, 277, 291
Bass, Michael, 235
Batterson, James Goodwin, 292
Baumann, Arthur Anthony, 227, 232
The Last Victorians, 223n
Beecher, Henry Ward, 127n
Bentham, Jeremy, 182
Beresford Hope, A. J. B., 133n
Bernanke, Ben S., The Courage to Act, xiv
Beveridge, Dr. (phrenologist), 86, 87–89, 93, 105
Beverley Commission, 218
“bezzle,” coining of term, 277
Birkbeck, Robert, 149
Bismarck, Otto von, 204
Black Friday (1866), 160–62, 165, 168, 173, 178, 179–80, 224, 237, 274, 275
Blackstone, William, 34, 35
Blakenham, Viscount, 294
Board of Trade, 25–26
Bolívar, Simón, xxvi
Bolivia, investments in, 253, 258
boom and bust cycles:
Bagehot (Lombard Street) on, 276–77
and Bank of England, see Bank of England
and bubbles, xxvii, 28, 125n, 221, 248, 253, 265
and dividend yields, 55
and “foreign influence,” 75, 80, 141
and interest rates, 47, 48, 49, 69, 80, 177
interplay of money and credit as source of, xviii, xxi-xxii, 47, 80, 176–77, 266–67, 272–74
and Overend Gurney failure, see Overend, Gurney & Co.
Overstone’s analysis of, 72–73, 95
panics, 67–69, 76–78, 92–93; see also specific panics
postwar cycles, xxiii-xxiv, xxvi
and railroad mania, 27–29, 165, 265
Borough Bank, Liverpool, 75
Bowring, Sir John, 49n
Brazil, investments in, xxvi
Bribery Act (1726), 209
Bridgwater:
and Bagehot’s election bid, 205, 208–15, 216–17, 219, 230n, 233
and Bagehot’s writing, 188
Bridgwater & Taunton Canal Company, 37n
Bright, John:
on “Clubland,” 234
and Corn Laws, 31, 181
and free trade, 49, 96, 181, 186, 206
and Liberal Party, 186
and Peel, 31
and U.S. Civil War, 181
and voting franchise, 191, 193–94, 199–200, 207
Bristol & Exeter Railway, 37n
Bristol College, Walter as student in, 9–13
Bristol riots (1832), 9–10
Britain:
class distinctions in, 96, 131, 183, 190–91, 195, 199, 201, 208
class struggle in, 20
commerce in, 273
Constitution of, 167, 184–92, 201, 224, 226
efficient and theatrical forms of government in, 188–89
exchequer bills of, 289
executive and legislative branches of, 188–90
government bonds of, 247
money in, 272; see also money
national debt of, xx
royalty in, 189, 201
suffrage in, see voting franchise
Treasury bills, 289–90
and U.S. Civil War, 120, 125–36
wars with France, xvii, xix, xx, 47
British East India Company, 68, 107, 182
British Foreign Office, xvi
British Treasury, bonds issued by, xxvi, xxix, 141
Brooks’s Club, 234–35, 238
Brougham, Henry, 15, 61
Browning, Robert, 228
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 47–48, 101
Bryce, James, 236
Buchan, Alastair, 16
Buchanan, James, 80
Buenos Aires, investments in, xxvi
bull and bear markets, 27n, 142, 158, 176, 280
Bullion Committee, xx
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Zanoni, 88
Burkean conservatism, 185
Burke, Edmund, 19
Butler, Bishop, 90
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 222
Cairnes, John Elliott, 127, 154
Caledonian Mercury, 135–36
California, gold strikes in, 47, 48, 97
Campbell, Thomas, 15
Canning, Lord Charles, xxvi, 109
capital:
sources of, 47
visible, 52
Carlyle, Thomas, 244
Carnarvon, Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of, 102, 236
Carnarvon, Lady, 236
cash, use of term, 274n
Castle Bank, Bristol, xxviii, xix, xxx-xxxi
central banks:
and limited liability, 142
liquidity prized by, xxvn, 143
and money, 264
roles of, xiv-xv, xvi, 32, 33, 80, 123, 164, 178, 278, 293
see also Bank of England
Chadwick, Edwin, 231
Chancellor, Edward, 29
Chapman, David Barclay, 145
Chapman, D. W., 145–46, 147, 149, 155
Charles I, king of England, 1
Chatham, Lady, 6
Chemical Bank, New York, 75n
Chevalier, Michel, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold, 97
Chile, investments in, xxvi
Church of England, 8, 9, 119, 226
forced tithing to, 96
City of Glasgow Bank, 77, 278, 293
Clarendon, Lord, 241n
Clarke, Samuel, 15
Clyde, Lord, 109
Cobden, Richard, 31, 49
Coleridge, Hartley, 90
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 4
Colombia, investments in, xxvi
Communist Manifesto (Marx), 70n
Companies Act (1867), 139
Confederate States of America, 127–29, 130, 132–35, 141, 183, 202
Corn Laws:
and British economy, 49, 96
opposition to, 11, 18–19, 20, 22, 31, 62–63, 99, 173, 222, 235
repeal of (1846), 118, 180, 181, 200
support of, 31
Corporation of Foreign Bondholders, 257–58
Corrupt Practices Act (1854), 210
Corry, Montagu, 260
Costa Rica, investment in, 247, 253
cotton:
U.K. imports of, 49, 132, 134
and U.S. Civil War, 129, 130, 132–34, 141, 202
Courage to Act, The (Bernanke), xiv
Courtney of Penwith, Lord, 100n
Cranborne, Viscount, later Lord Salisbury, 165n
credit:
across international boundaries, xxi-xxii, xxvi-xxviii, 30, 80
availability of, 272–73
Bagehot’s writings on, 66–67, 92, 269
Bank of England as lender of last resort, xiv, 167–70, 171, 174–75, 186, 266, 267, 268, 278, 279, 280
and bankruptcies, 176
and Black Friday, 160, 168
commercial lending, xxv, 172–73
and currency, xv, xxiii-xxiv
cycles of, 269, 272, 274, 280
and “finance” companies, 143–53
on inadequate security, xxiii, xxviiin, xxx, 28, 67, 80, 145–46, 159, 273
intermediation of, 79
and monetary foundation, xviii, xxx, 273
mortgage collateral, xxv-xxvi, xxviiin
and Panic of 1857, 77, 78n
as promise to pay money, xviii, 176, 264, 269, 273
as superstition, 92
as wild card, 71
Crédit Foncier, France,
143, 157, 261
Crédit Foncier and Mobilier of England, 144
Crédit Mobilier, France, 89, 143, 157
Crimean War, 56, 181, 258
Crisis of 1866, The (Fowler), 173
Cromer, Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of, 262
Cromwell, Oliver, 1
Crystal Palace, London, Great Exhibition (1851), 38
Culwick, Hannah, 190–91n
Cunliffe, Walter, 278
Daily Telegraph, 238
Darwin, Charles, 230, 240, 273
Dattel, Eugene R., 130n
Davies, Emily, 228, 229
Davis, Jefferson, 128, 181
Delacroix, Eugène, 38
Delane, John Thadeus, 133n, 238–39
De Morgan, Augustus, 16–18, 46
Derby, Edward Stanley, Lord, 95, 222–23, 224, 229–30, 231, 260
Dicey, A. V., 192
Dickens, Charles, 6, 102
Hard Times, 48n
Disraeli, Benjamin, xxvii, 174, 194, 203
Bagehot’s dislike of, 220–29, 232, 238
baptism of, 220
as chancellor of the exchequor, 222–23, 229–30
Coningsby, 44n
personal traits of, 225
and reform legislation, 184, 224, 227–28, 229
reputation of, 221
speculative investments of, 221–22
speeches of, 78, 201, 222, 223, 226–27
and Suez Canal Company, 260–62
Sybil, or The Two Nations, 222
Vivian Grey, 221
Disraeli, Isaac, 220
D’Israeli, James, 194
Disraeli, Mary Anne Lewis, 222n, 225
Dobree, Bonamy, 148
Dollinger, Ignaz von, 118
Economist:
Bagehot as editor of, xiv, 107, 109, 113–14, 120, 122, 124–25, 132, 205, 230, 266, 283, 285, 286
Bagehot’s writings in, xv-xvi, 66, 79, 88, 89, 90, 113, 170–72, 177, 179–80, 204, 208, 228–29, 234, 286
books published by, 31–33
circulation of, 286n
competition of, 284, 285
on Disraeli, 223–25, 232
on education for women, 228
on election bribery, 210–11, 213, 219
expansion of, 99–101, 284, 285
financial condition of, 284–86
on foreign investment, 248–59, 261–62
founding of, 22
on free trade, 49
on French politics, 45
and Gladstone, 116–18, 122
on government’s roles, 33
on Great Exhibition (1851), 38
Hutton as editor of, 100, 101, 107, 114, 124, 132
incorruptibility of, xvi, 249n, 283
on international economies, 68
and Investors Monthly Manual, 285
left in trust to Wilson family, 283
on limited liability, 139
on neutrality, 238
Norman’s contributions to, 263–66
and Overend Gurney, 153–62
and Panic of 1857, 69, 75, 76n
Peel’s Act opposed by, 31, 32, 122, 142–43, 162, 170
on railroad speculators, 29, 31n
supporting statistics pioneered by, 101, 281–82
and U.S. Civil War, 124, 128, 130, 131–34, 135
Wilson as founder of, 22, 29
Edinburgh Review, 61, 63, 70, 90, 120, 142
Edwards, Edward Watkin, 146–51
Edwards, Ruth Dudley, 127
Egypt:
European control of finances of, 261–62
investments in, 248–49, 254–57, 258
Suez Canal Company, 259–62
Egyptian Trading Company, 142
Egypt Under Ismail (McCoan), 257, 258–59
Eldon, Lord, 61
elections, see voting franchise
Eliot, George, 184, 185n, 236, 237
Elizabeth I, queen of England, 1
Elizabeth, Princess Palatine of Bavaria, 202
Emancipation Proclamation, U.S., 129–32
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 117n
Emile Erlanger & Co., 132
Encyclopedia Britannica, 89
Engels, Friedrich, 222n
English and Foreign Credit Company, 142
English Constitution, The (Bagehot), 185, 186–94, 230, 234
Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen (Bagehot), 90–91
Estlin, John Bishop, 4
Estlin, John Prior, 4
Estlin, Stuckey, 13
Examiner, 21, 90, 291
Federal Reserve Bank, roles of, xiv
Financial News, 282
Financial Times, 294
Finlason, W. F., 145
Fortesque, Albany, 21
Fortnightly; Fortnightly Review, 116, 184, 185, 186, 234, 240, 287
Fowler, William, The Crisis of 1866, 173
France:
bimetallism in, 86
bons de Tresor in, 289
coup d’état in, 40–45
Crédit Foncier and Crédit Mobilier, 89, 143, 157, 261
financial speculation in, 67
monetary innovations in, xxvii
revolution (1848), 39, 62, 199
and Suez Canal Company, 261
suspension of gold convertibility (1870), 270
Terror of 1793, 39
wars with Britain, xvii, xix, xx, 47
war with Austria, 100
Franco-Prussian War, 238, 274
free trade, 49, 200
and democracy, 96
and House of Lords, 189
in Manchester, 205, 206
Peel’s support of, 222
and repeal of Corn Laws, 180, 181
Friend of India, The, 114
Fruhling and Goschen, 139, 261
Galbraith, John Kenneth, 277
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 183–84
Garrison, William Lloyd, 4
Gassiot, John P., Monetary Panics and their Remedy, 173
General Credit and Finance Company, 142, 144
George III, king of England, xvii
Gibbon, Edward, 135
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 182
Giffen, Robert, 239, 283, 286, 287
Gilliat, J. S., 133n
Gillray, James, xix
Girton College, 229
Gladstone, William E., 114–24, 184, 187
Bagehot as adviser to, xv, 114, 120–24, 136, 160, 237–39, 291
Bagehot’s essay on, 116–18
and Bagehot’s political advisers, 97, 108
and Bagehot’s run for election, 205, 237
and Board of Trade, 25–26, 28, 118
as chancellor of exchequer, 114–18, 120–24, 229
diary of, 115, 119, 120, 239
interests of, 118–19
on Irish economy, 113n
as orator, 114–16, 118, 128
and Overend Gurney, 160, 166
in Parliament, 186
as prime minister, 232, 235, 239, 266
and railroad speculation, 28, 31
on rationalization, 122–24
The State in its Relations to the Church, 119, 120
on suffrage, 192–93, 198, 201–3, 223–24
translations by, 101, 117
and U.S. Civil War, 120, 127–29, 133n, 136
gold:
in California and Australia, 47, 48, 97
convertibility of paper to, xvii, xx, xxi, xxix, 30, 71–72, 265, 277
as international money, 68, 270
limitations of, 173
money as, xv, xviii, xxvi, 175, 263–64
moving across national boundaries, xxi-xxii
and Panic of 1825, xxviii-xix
and Peel’s Act, 26, 74
possible run on, 275
pre-1914 pound, 281
price of, 30
production of, 98n
restriction on gold payments (1797), xvii, xviii, xx, xxi, xxx
resumption of gold paymen
ts (1819–1821), xviii, xxiv-xxv, 25, 73
and value of the pound, xviii, xix, xx, 71
wider circulation of, xxv
gold reserves, xxx, 74, 79, 88, 98, 173–74, 177, 186, 266–72, 274, 278, 279, 281–82
gold standard, xix, xx-xxii, 51, 52, 193n, 272, 273n, 277, 280–81, 293
Goschen, George, later Viscount Goschen, 230
on gold reserves, 282
on interest rates, xv, 139–42, 154
on international investment, 257, 261
“Seven Percent,” xv
The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges, 140
“Two Percent,” xv
government:
and banking, xv, xxiii, xxx, 32, 70n, 71–74, 76–81, 121–22, 166–70, 176, 178, 185, 266–67, 282
“by discussion,” 243–44, 245
church and state, 226–27
corruption in, 231–32, 233
and education, 231
roles of, 32, 231
as security for a loan, 260–61
Graham, Benjamin, 247
grain merchants, failure of (1847), 30
Grant, Albert, 144, 146, 165n
Granville, George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl of, 97, 235, 238
Great Eastern (seagoing ironclad), 47, 83
Great Eastern Railway Company, 164
Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace, London (1851), 38
Great Recession (2008), 280
Great Reform Act (1832), 9
Great War, 277
Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, 147
Greenwood, Frederick, 260
Greg, Julia Wilson, 99, 100, 105
Greg, William Rathbone, 88, 99–100, 105, 205, 244
“Agriculture and the Corn Laws,” 99
Grey, Lord, 97, 288
Guatemala, investments in, xxvi
Guizot, François, 59, 187
Gurney, H. E., 145, 146
Gurney, Hundson, xxiv
Gurney, John Henry, 156, 157
Gurney, Samuel, 145
Habeas Corpus Act, 78
Hall, Sir Charles, 35
Halsey, William, 108, 110, 111
Hankey, Thomson, 163–65, 171–73, 174–78, 273
on gold reserves, 269–70, 281
and Lombard Street, 163, 186, 276
The Principles of Banking, Its Utility and Economy, 164, 174, 175–78, 272, 278, 279–81
Hardcastle, Daniel Jr., 52–53
Hard Times (Dickens), 48n
Harman, Jeremiah, xiii, xiv, 167
Hartmont, Edward Herzberg, 250
Hazlitt, William, “Hot and Cold,” 44n
History and Literature of Political Science, The (Von Mohl), 101n
History of Prices (Tooke), 32
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The (Gibbon), 182
Hitler, Adolf, 241n
HMS Scourge, 115–16
Hodgskin, Thomas, 99
Holland, Lancelot, 167–68, 169, 171, 266
Homer, 101
Honduras, investments in, 247, 252, 253, 258
Hoppus, John, 15–16
Horace, 101
Horner, Francis, 63
House of Commons:
Bagehot’s analysis of, 185, 189