This paper explores the actions of the Bank of England and the Banque de France in promoting international economic stability during the mid-nineteenth century. The evidence presented below indicates that the Bank of England acted in concert with the Bank of France, through France's reliance on...

This dissertation will analyse the degree to which Bank of England note issues influenced the extent of credit expansion by the British banking system during the 1819-26 business cycle. The evidence presented, both theoretical and empirical, tends to suggest that such an influence did indeed...

This paper assesses Revolutionary and Napoleonic wartime economic policy. Suspension of gold convertibility in 1797 allowed the Bank of England to nurture British monetary orthodoxy. The Order of the Privy Council suspended gold payments on Bank of England notes and afforded simultaneous...

In this paper we survey the development of lending of last resort operations in the mid-19th century. We identify and document critical dimensions of the extension of lending of last resort functions, and also develop original empirical tests enabling us to identify such things as the emergence...

This paper situates the early history of the Bank of England in the 17th century environment where the circulation of specie-based coin caused it to wear down, prompting debasement by monetary authorities (Lane and Mueller 1985). Thus, the 19th Gold Standard was only possible because of prior...

When faced with a run on a "systemically important" but insolvent bank in 1889, the Banque de France pre-emptively organized a lifeboat to ensure that depositors were protected and an orderly liquidation could proceed. To protect the Banque from losses on its lifeboat loan, a guarantee syndicate...

This paper finds that in 1824 and 1825 the Bank of England failed to understand the extent of its influence over economic activity and thus together with the Government made serious policy errors that led to the 1825 crisis. Specifically, I argue that the second post-war debt conversion caused a...

Under the classical gold standard (1880-1914), the Bank of France maintained a stable discount rate while the Bank of England changed its rate very frequently. Why did the policies of these central banks, the two pillars of the gold standard, differ so much? How did the Bank of France manage to...

This paper is devoted to currency policies in Austria over the last 200 years, attempting to sketch historical developments and uncover regularities and interconnections with macroeconomic variables. During most of the 200-year period, Austrian currencies were subject to fixed exchange rates, in...

In the first thirty years of its operations, key functions of the privileged National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia (1884-1914) were those of a creditor of the economy, issuer of currency and banker to the government. The National Bank’s success in the performance of its functions was mainly...