The Bank of England and Public Policy, 1941-1958

by John Fforde

Overview

The official history of the Bank of England, already available up to the Second World War, is here continued into the late wartime and early postwar periods. The author is a central banker by trade and a former Executive Director of the Bank. His account examines mainly how the Bank moved on after the hurried nationalization of 1946 and led a vigorous though often frustrated life in the postwar years, when sterling was subject to recurrent external weakness and when domestic monetary policy was beset by difficulties of content and conduct. The Bank's relationship with the Treasury is central to the story, but Mr. Fforde also examines its evolving relationship with the financial community and with central banks overseas. The Bank's contribution to public policy, in a frequently controversial field, is explained and assessed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521391399
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/28/1992
Pages:	884
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 2.09(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations and acknowledgements; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. The nationalisation of Norman's bank; 2. Lord Keynes and the Bank: Bretton Woods and the Anglo–American Loan; 3. The false dawn and the crisis of 1947; 4. The four difficult years: from the crisis of 1947 to the Korean War; 5. Domestic monetary policy 1945–51; 6. The watershed: 1951–2; 7. The rise and fall of the Collective Approach: 1952–5; 8. 1956: the Bank and the Suez affair; 9. Convertibility: the last act: 1957–8; 10. Domestic monetary policy 1952–8: disillusion and debate; 11. The Bank and the Square Mile; 12. Envoi.