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The Bank of England as lender of last resort: New historical evidence from daily transactional data

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  • Anson, Mike
  • Bhola, David
  • Kang, Miao
  • Thomas, Ryland
Abstract
We use daily transactional ledger data from the Bank of England's Archive to test whether and to what extent the Bank of England during the mid-nineteenth century adhered to Walter Bagehot's rule that a central bank in a financial crisis should lend cash freely at a high interest rate in exchange for "good" securities. The archival data we use provides granular, loan-level insight on the price and quantity of credit, and information on its distribution to particular counterparties. We find that the Bank's behaviour during this period broadly conforms to Bagehot's rule, though with variation across the crises of 1847, 1857 and 1866. Using a new, higher frequency series on the Bank's balance sheet, we find that the Bank did lend freely, with the number of discounts and advances increasing during crises. These loans were typically granted at a rate above pre-crisis levels and, in 1857 and 1866, typically at a spread above Bank Rate, though we also find some instances in the daily discount ledgers where individual loans were made below Bank rate in 1847. Another set of customer ledgers shows that the securities the Bank purchased were debts owed by a geographically and industrially diverse set of debtors. And using new data on the Bank's income and dividends, we find the Bank and its shareholders profited from lender of last resort operations. We conclude our paper by relating our findings to contemporary debates including those regarding the provision of emergency liquidity to shadow banks.

Suggested Citation

  • Anson, Mike & Bhola, David & Kang, Miao & Thomas, Ryland, 2017. "The Bank of England as lender of last resort: New historical evidence from daily transactional data," eabh Papers 17-03, The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:eabhps:1703
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    Cited by:

    1. Bailey, Andrew & Bridges, Jonathan & Harrison, Richard & Jones, Josh & Mankodi, Aakash, 2020. "The central bank balance sheet as a policy tool: past, present and future," Bank of England working papers 899, Bank of England.
    2. Agostino, Mariarosaria & Errico, Lucia & Rondinella, Sandro & Trivieri, Francesco, 2022. "On the response to the financial crisis of 1914: The Bank of England's discount policy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(4), pages 290-307.
    3. Charles M. Kahn & Stephen F. Quinn & William Roberds, 2023. "The Fed and Its Shadow: A Historical View," Policy Hub, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 2023(6), pages 1-32, October.
    4. Sabine Schneider, 2022. "The politics of last resort lending and the Overend & Gurney crisis of 1866," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 579-600, May.
    5. Patrick K. O'Brien & Nuno Palma, 2023. "Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694–1844," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(1), pages 305-329, February.
    6. Laurent Le Maux, 2021. "Bagehot for Central Bankers," Working Papers hal-03201509, HAL.
    7. Kilian Rieder & Michael Anson & David Bholat & Miao Kang & Ryland Thomas, 2018. "Frosted glass or raised eyebrow? Testing the Bank of England’s discount window policies during the crisis of 1847," Working Papers 18020, Economic History Society.
    8. Charles R. Bean, 2019. "A Review Essay: David Kynaston's Till Time's Last Sand: A History of the Bank of England, 1694–2013," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(4), pages 972-987, December.
    9. Anson, Mike & Bholat, David & Kang, Miao & Rieder, Kilian & Thomas, Ryland, 2019. "The Bank of England and central bank credit rationing during the crisis of 1847: frosted glass or raised eyebrows?," Bank of England working papers 794, Bank of England.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank of England; lender of last resort; financial crises; financial history; central banking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • N8 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History

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