NEW BOOK: VIRTUOUS BANKERS

Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England
Anne L. Murphy

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.

Anne L. Murphy is professor of history and executive dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. Before joining academia, she worked for twelve years in the City of London trading interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives. She is the author of The Origins of the English Financial Markets.

Extremely well-written and engaging. Rarely does one read an account of an historical institution that is this compelling. Murphy's descriptions are so vivid that one leaves the book feeling almost like one has actually visited the eighteenth-century Bank oneself.—Carl Wennerlind, Barnard College, Columbia University

Anne Murphy draws on a unique cache of documents to provide an unusually detailed glimpse into the day-to-day functioning of the Bank of England from its cleaners and clerks to its directors. This thoroughly engaging volume enriches our understanding of both social and financial history of the eighteenth century."—Catherine Schenk, University of Oxford

Hardcover
Price: $35.00/£30.00
ISBN: 9780691194745
Published: May 9, 2023
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 288
Size: 6.13 x 9.25 in.

For more information, or to order, see:
Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691194745/virtuous-bankers)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web