Central Banking in the Twentieth Century

Central banks date from the late nineteenth century but the great majority from the twentieth century. They are institutions whose principal purpose is to provide stable monetary and financial conditions, though their functions have varied over time. Claims made for the banks’ powers have often been greater than was merited. This chapter sets out how central banks’ responsibilities arose and how they have been fulfilled. It gives particular attention to something that was almost lost sight of in recent years that of their traditional responsibility for financial stability. Other aspects of central banking are then discussed: the role they might have in supervision/regulation; central bank co-operation has played; and the meaning and desirability of central bank independence.

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John Singleton, Central Banking in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, 350 pp., hardback £60, $99)

Financial History Review ◽

10.1017/s0968565011000242 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 360-362

Author(s):

Piet Clement

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Central Banking ◽

Cambridge University ◽

John Singleton

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Rehabilitation

Central Banking before 1800 ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198849995.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 172-194

Author(s):

Ulrich Bindseil

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Eighteenth Century ◽

Central Bank ◽

Balance Sheet ◽

Central Banks ◽

Central Banking ◽

Joint Stock Company ◽

Stock Company ◽

Bank Of England ◽

Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

This chapter returns to the question who invented what in central banking. The review confirms broader and earlier origins of central banking, with particularly the early banks in Barcelona, Genoa, Naples, Venice, Amsterdam, and Hamburg having all made major contributions and actually having developed all central bank operations that would prevail until the early twentieth century (except discounting trade bills). The Bank of England invented the private ownership model based on a joint stock company, which became the template for most central bank creations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but has been considered outdated since the mid twentieth century. Moreover, it had the largest balance sheet amongst all central banks in the eighteenth century. The chapter ends with a list of 15 major current central bank topics which all can be traced back to before 1800, showing how relevant the study of early central banking remains.

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