Abstract
Nowadays remembered only through Adam Smith’s references in the Wealth of Nations to the short-lived Ayr Bank in Scotland, the 1772-3 financial crisis was an important historical episode in its own right, and one that has hitherto not been covered in its entirety. This book uses a variety of archival sources to question the bubble narrative traditionally associated with this episode, and to identify the mechanisms of financial contagion that allowed the failure of a small private bank in London to cause rapid and severe distress in the 18th century financial system, involving in turn British and mainland European banks, the troubled East India Company, and even the North American colonies. It also argues that the Bank of England’s prompt efforts to contain the crisis are evidence of a Lender of Last Resort in action, some thirty years before the classical formulation of the concept by Henry Thornton.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Cham |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Number of pages | 360 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783319709086 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783319709079, 9783030100018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 4 Apr 2018 |
Publication series
Name | Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance |
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Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
ISSN (Print) | 2662-5164 |
Keywords
- British credit crisis
- economic displacement
- monetary expansion
- equity growth
- credit growth
- Ayr bank
- asset speculation
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Paul Kosmetatos
- School of History, Classics and Archaeology - Lectureship in International Economic History
- History
Person: Academic: Research Active