Currency and Banking Reform in 19th-Century Britain

As banks — central and otherwise — falter and fail across the globe, it is increasingly obvious that the problems of monetary policy that we face run deeper than merely finding the correct adjustment to a Taylor rule. It is trite but nevertheless true to say that great monetary reforms are necessary. The purpose of this article is not to argue for particular policies, but to examine a particularly important historical example of how (and how not) to go about monetary policy and reform.