The Foundation of the Bank of England
Nicholas Lane discusses the reasons of business and war that led to the establishment of a national bank in London in 1694.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the modern business world began to take shape, well in advance of the industrial society that it was eventually to serve. Insurance was developing, in primitive fashion, from its ancient marine origins; the joint-stock organization was already exemplified in the variety of Companies that were opening up overseas commerce; the goldsmiths were experimenting with banking, and by trial and error evolving the principles of receiving on deposit and lending at interest. Fortuitously, amid these bustling enterprises, there came the creation of the bank which, in due time, was to provide the pattern for all central banks.
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