An intimate account of the eighteenth-century Bank of England that
shows how a private institution became “a great engine of
state” The eighteenth-century Bank of England was an institution
that operated for the benefit of its shareholders—and yet came to
be considered, as Adam Smith described it, “a great engine of
state.” In Virtuous Bankers, Anne Murphy explores how this
private organization became the guardian of the public credit upon
which Britain’s economic and geopolitical power was based.
Drawing on the voluminous and detailed minute books of a Committee
of Inspection that examined the Bank’s workings in 1783–84,
Murphy frames her account as “a day in the life” of the Bank of
England, looking at a day’s worth of banking activities that
ranged from the issuing of bank notes to the management of public
funds. Murphy discusses the bank as a domestic environment, a
working environment, and a space to be protected against theft,
fire, and revolt. She offers new insights into the skills of the
Bank’s clerks and the ways in which their work was organized, and
she positions the Bank as part of the physical and cultural
landscape of the City: an aggressive property developer, a
vulnerable institution seeking to secure its buildings, and an
enterprise necessarily accessible to the public. She considers the
aesthetics of its headquarters—one of London’s finest
buildings—and the messages of creditworthiness embedded in that
architecture and in the very visible actions of the Bank’s
clerks. Murphy’s uniquely intimate account shows how the
eighteenth-century Bank was able to deliver a set of services that
were essential to the state and commanded the confidence of the
public.
General
| Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
May 2023 |
| Firstpublished: |
2023 |
| Authors: |
Ann E. Murphy
|
| Dimensions: |
235 x 156mm (L x W) |
| Format: |
Hardcover
|
| Pages: |
288 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-19474-5 |
| Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-691-19474-2 |
| Barcode: |
9780691194745 |
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