A History Of Central Banking In Great Britain And The United States

by John H. Wood

• ISBN13: 9780521850131
• ISBN10: 0521850134
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Central banks in Great Britain and the United States arose early in the financial revolution. The Bank of England was created in 1694 while the first Banks of the United States appeared in 1791-1811 and 1816-36, and were followed by the Independent Treasury, 1846-1914. These institutions, together with the Suffolk Bank and the New York Clearing House, exercised important central banking function before the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Significant monetary changes in the lives of these British and American institutions are examined within a framework that deals with the knowledge and behavior of central bankers and their interactions with economists and politicians. Central Bankers' behavior has shown considerable continuity in the influence of incentives and their interest in the stability of the financial markets.

Table of Contents

list of Figures	xii
List of Tables	xiv
Preface	xv
1. Understanding Central Bankers and Monetary Policy	1	(7)
2. An Introduction to Central Bankers	8	(24)
War, Inflation, Suspension, and More Inflation, 1793-1810	9	(5)
The Bullion Committee and the Macroeconomic Responsibilities of the Bank of England	14	(6)
Banking, Central Banking, Knowledge, and Incentives to the Public Interest	20	(7)
Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Monetary Policy	27	(5)
3. Making a Central Bank: I. Surviving	32	(28)
The First Hundred Years	34	(13)
The Resumption of 1821	47	(13)
4. Making a Central Bank: II. Looking for a Rule	60	(29)
Public Responsibilities	62	(5)
The Committee of 1832	67	(8)
The Bank Charter Act of 1844	75	(14)
5. Making a Central Bank: III. Means and Ends	89	(28)
Lombard Street	89	(7)
The Crisis of 1847	96	(5)
Contingencies and Commitments	101	(6)
Central Banking after Bagehot	107	(6)
Conclusion: Central Banking under the Gold Standard	113	(4)
6. Central Banking in the United States, 1790-1914	117	(39)
New England Central Banks, 1824-1866	120	(3)
The First and Second Banks of the United States, 1791-1836	123	(11)
Money Centers and Clearinghouses, 1853-1913	134	(5)
The Independent Treasury, 1846-1914	139	(14)
The National Banking System	153	(3)
7. Before the Crash: The Origins and Early Years of the Federal Reserve	156	(38)
Origins: Who Wants a Central Bank?	158	(8)
Another Way: Keynes's Plan for a State Bank for India	166	(3)
Getting Started	169	(7)
Regulating Credit: Interest Rates or Discrimination?	176	(5)
A Model of Monetary (Credit) Policy? The Federal Reserve Board's 1923 Annual Report	181	(3)
Price Stabilization	184	(5)
Conflicts in the Federal Reserve System	189	(2)
Federal Reserve Knowledge and Incentives on the Eve of the Crash	191	(3)
8. The Fall and Rise of the Federal Reserve, 1929-1951	194	(50)
After the Crash	196	(15)
The Treasury Takes Charge	211	(7)
Riding the Tiger: Marriner Eccles, the Federal Reserve, and the Executive	218	(26)
9. Central Banking in the United States after the Great Depression, 1951 to the 1960's	244	(33)
Bills Only	247	(9)
Operation Twist	256	(5)
Bretton Woods	261	(14)
Markets Have Their Way	275	(2)
10. The Bank of England after 1914	277	(51)
Norman's Bank and the Return to Gold in 1925	280	(13)
The American Loan and the Resumption of 1947	293	(4)
Monetary Policy, 1945-1960: From Cheap Money to Stop-Go	297	(17)
The Bank, Prime Ministers, and the Pound: From One Unmentionable to Another, 1951-1967	314	(9)
From Radcliffe to Competition and Credit Control	323	(5)
11. Rules versus Authorities	328	(22)
Interest Rules: Tooke, Wicksell, and the Quantity Theory	330	(6)
Money Rules	336	(4)
Econometrics and the Theory of Economic Policy	340	(2)
Free Reserves	342	(2)
Democratic Central Banking	344	(3)
The Structure of the Federal Reserve	347	(3)
12. Permanent Suspension	350	(25)
The Economics of Frustration	351	(18)
Monetary Policy with a Floating Exchange Rate, August 1971 to October 1979	369	(6)
13. Back to the Beginning? New Contracts for New Companies	375	(26)
Turning Point	377	(5)
New Operating Procedures	382	(7)
New Contracts...	389	(8)
...Compared with the Old...	397	(2)
...And Their Prospects	399	(2)
References	401	(24)
Index	425