Organization
ActiveThe Bank of England
London · Since 1694
Still the United Kingdom's central bank. Nationalized in 1946, and given operational independence over interest rates in 1997.
In 1694 Parliament chartered the Bank of England to lend £1.2 million to the government for a war with France. The subscribers became the Company of the Bank of England. In return they received interest and the right to issue notes.
The bank was a private company with a public purpose, which is a contradiction it managed for two and a half centuries. It handled the government's debt, issued the notes other banks used as reserves, and in a crisis lent to houses that were solvent but illiquid. Walter Bagehot later wrote down the rule the bank had been half-following: lend freely, on good security, at a high rate.
The clerks of public credit
The hall in Threadneedle Street employed a growing staff of clerks who transferred stock, paid dividends on the national debt, and discounted bills. A clerkship at the bank was a respectable lifetime post, closer to the civil service than to a merchant's counting house. Around that staff grew the brokers, jobbers, and scriveners of the City, people whose work existed because the government's promises had become a market.
From company to central bank
Peel's Act of 1844 split the issue of notes from the banking business and tied the note issue to gold. The bank still had private shareholders. Labour nationalized it in 1946. In 1997 it was given the power to set interest rates without asking the chancellor first. The name and the building continued. The private company did not. It is the rare firm in this catalogue that became more important by ceasing to be a firm.
The work it organized
- Bank clerk
- Stock transfer clerk
- Discount broker
- Note examiner
On the timeline
Related
- Lloyd'sActive
- Baring BrothersDissolved