The Monetary Foundations of Britain’s Early 19th Century Ascendency

Carolyn Sissoko (csissoko5@gmail.com)

Working Papers from Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol

Abstract: This paper argues that Britain’s monetary system at the start of the Napoleonic Wars was substantially different from its monetary system at their end, and that the Restriction and the Bank of England’s discount policy during the Restriction played a determining role in the transformation of the monetary system. Specifically, I argue that Britain’s monetary system through the second half of the 18th century was built on transaction-based credit, and that by the end of the war this monetary system had been transformed into one based on personal credit. I find that the Bullion Committee deliberately reset the public’s inflation expectations in order to stabilize the monetary system. And that the Bank was acting as a lender of last resort with an explicit duty to support commercial interests in the crisis of 1810-11.

Date: 2019-01-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-mac and nep-mon
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwe:wpaper:20191906

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