IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0691.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Anson, Mike

    (Bank of England)

  • Bholat, David

    (Bank of England)

  • Kang, Miao

    (Bank of England)

  • Thomas, Ryland

    (Bank of England)

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 penalty 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 & Bholat, David & Kang, Miao & Thomas, Ryland, 2017. "The Bank of England as lender of last resort: new historical evidence from daily transactional data," Bank of England working papers 691, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2017/the-bank-of-england-as-lender-of-last-resort-a-new-historical-evidence-from-daily-transactional-data.pdf?la=en&hash=173967C0B9499B9B2E3792E82D484863C7DF3760
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Varieties of Crises and Their Dates," Introductory Chapters, in: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press.
    2. repec:bla:intfin:v:2:y:1999:i:3:p:339-60 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Jean-Charles Rochet & Xavier Vives, 2004. "Coordination Failures and the Lender of Last Resort: Was Bagehot Right After All?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(6), pages 1116-1147, December.
    4. Peter Temin & Hans‐Joachim Voth, 2008. "Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 743-758, April.
    5. Calomiris, Charles W., 2010. "Banking crises yesterday and today1," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 3-12, April.
    6. Marc Flandreau & Stefano Ugolini, 2014. "The Crisis of 1866," Post-Print hal-01293925, HAL.
    7. Charles A. E. Goodhart, 1995. "The Central Bank and the Financial System," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262071673, April.
    8. Turner,John D., 2014. "Banking in Crisis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107030947, September.
    9. Kenneth N Kuttner, 2010. "Victorian Financial Crises and their Implications for the Future," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 45(2), pages 102-109, April.
    10. Eichengreen, Barry, 2016. "Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses-and Misuses-of History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190621070.
    11. Burdekin, Richard C. K. & Keskinel, Meric, 2013. "Liquidity preference and interest-bearing money: the Ottoman Empire, 1840–1851," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 91-102, April.
    12. Bank for International Settlements, 2014. "Re-thinking the lender of last resort," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 79.
    13. Charles W. Calomiris & Stephen H. Haber, 2015. "Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 10177-2.
    14. Stephen Quinn & William Roberds, 2015. "Responding to a Shadow Banking Crisis: The Lessons of 1763," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(6), pages 1149-1176, September.
    15. Reinhart, Karmen & Rogoff, Kenneth, 2009. ""This time is different": panorama of eight centuries of financial crises," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 77-114, March.
    16. C. A. E. Goodhart, 1995. "The Central Bank and the Financial System," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-37915-2, March.
    17. Hyun Song Shin, 2009. "Reflections on Northern Rock: The Bank Run That Heralded the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 101-119, Winter.
    18. Paul Tucker, 2014. "The lender of last resort and modern central banking: principles and reconstruction," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Re-thinking the lender of last resort, volume 79, pages 10-42, Bank for International Settlements.
    19. Patrick K O'Brien & Nuno Palma, 2020. "Danger to the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street? The Bank Restriction Act and the regime shift to paper money, 1797–1821," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 24(2), pages 390-426.
    20. Vincent Bignon & Marc Flandreau & Stefano Ugolini, 2012. "Bagehot for beginners: the making of lender‐of‐last‐resort operations in the mid‐nineteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(2), pages 580-608, May.
    21. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2014. "This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(2), pages 215-268, November.
    22. Marc Flandreau, Stefano Ugolini, 2011. "Where It All Began: Lending of Last Resort and the Bank of England during the Overend, Gurney Panic of 1866," IHEID Working Papers 04-2011, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    23. George A. Selgin, 1989. "Legal Restrictions, Financial Weakening, and the Lender of Last Resort," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 429-469, Fall.
    24. Ricks, Morgan, 2016. "The Money Problem," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226330327, April.
    25. Sowerbutts, Rhiannon & Schneebalg, Marco & Hubert, Florence, 2016. "​The demise of Overend Gurney," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 56(2), pages 94-106.
    26. Niall Ferguson & Andreas Schaab & Moritz Schularick, 2015. "Central Bank Balance Sheets: Expansion and Reduction since 1900," CESifo Working Paper Series 5379, CESifo.
    27. Matthias Morys, 2014. "Gold Standard Lessons for the Eurozone," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 728-741, July.
    28. G. A. Fletcher, 1976. "The Discount Houses in London," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-01974-8, March.
    29. C.A.E. Goodhart, 1999. "Myths about the Lender of Last Resort," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(3), pages 339-360, November.
    30. Jobst, Clemens & Bignon, Vincent, 2017. "Economic Crises and the Eligibility for the Lender of Last Resort: Evidence from Nineteenth Century France," CEPR Discussion Papers 11737, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    31. Gorton, Gary & Metrick, Andrew, 2012. "Securitized banking and the run on repo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 425-451.
    32. Grossman, Richard & Rockoff, Hugh T, 2015. "Fighting the Last War: Economists on the Lender of Last Resort," CEPR Discussion Papers 10361, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    33. Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2009. "Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-2008," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 77-100, Winter.
    34. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2013_020 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Zoltan Pozsar, 2014. "Shadow Banking: The Money View," Working Papers 14-04, Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury.
    36. Jagjit S.Chadha & Elisa Newby, 2013. "'Midas, transmuting all, into paper': the Bank of England and the Banque de France during the Napoleonic Wars," Studies in Economics 1315, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    37. Santarosa, Veronica Aoki, 2015. "Financing Long-Distance Trade: The Joint Liability Rule and Bills of Exchange in Eighteenth-Century France," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 690-719, September.
    38. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 1994. "Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo94-1.
    39. Button, Richard & Knott, Samual & Macmanus, Conor & Willison, Matthew, 2015. "Desperate adventurers and men of straw: the failure of City of Glasgow Bank and its enduring impact on the UK banking system," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 55(1), pages 23-35.
    40. J. R. T. Hughes, 1956. "The Commercial Crisis Of 1857," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 194-222.
    41. Bordo, Michael D. & White, Eugene N., 1991. "A Tale of Two Currencies: British and French Finance During the Napoleonic Wars," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 303-316, June.
    42. Milton Friedman & Anna J. Schwartz, 1963. "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie63-1.
    43. Laurent Le Maux & Laurence Scialom, 2013. "Central banks and financial stability: rediscovering the lender-of-last-resort practice in a finance economy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(1), pages 1-16.
    44. Bordo, Michael D., 2014. "Rules for a lender of last resort: An historical perspective," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 126-134.
    45. Vincent Bignon & Marc Flandreau & Stefano Ugolini, 2009. "Bagehot for beginners: The making of lending of last resort operations in the mid-19th century," Working Paper 2009/22, Norges Bank.
    46. Bholat, David & Lastra, Rosa & Markose, Sheri & Miglionico, Andrea & Sen, Kallol, 2016. "Non-performing loans: regulatory and accounting treatments of assets," Bank of England working papers 594, Bank of England.
    47. David Bholat, 2014. "The Interwar Gold Standard in Light of the Present," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 711-712, July.
    48. Thomas, Ryland & Hills, Sally & Dimsdale, Nicholas, 2010. "The UK recession in context — what do three centuries of data tell us?," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 50(4), pages 277-291.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    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. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Laurent Le Maux, 2021. "Bagehot for Central Bankers," Working Papers Series inetwp147, Institute for New Economic Thinking.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Calomiris, Charles W. & Flandreau, Marc & Laeven, Luc, 2016. "Political foundations of the lender of last resort: A global historical narrative," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    2. Adam Brzezinski & Nuno Palma & François R. Velde, 2024. "Understanding money using historical evidence," Lewis Lab Working Papers Series 0004, Arthur Lewis Lab, The University of Manchester.
    3. Adam Brzezinski & Nuno Palma & François R. Velde, 2024. "Understanding Money Using Historical Evidence," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 571-595, August.
    4. Clemens Jobst & Kilian Rieder, 2016. "Principles, circumstances and constraints: the Nationalbank as lender of last resort from 1816 to 1931," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 3, pages 140-162.
    5. Fratianni, Michele & Giri, Federico, 2017. "The tale of two great crises," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 5-31.
    6. 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.
    7. van Eeghen, Piet-Hein, 2021. "Funding money-creating banks: Cash funding, balance sheet funding and the moral hazard of currency elasticity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Brunnermeier, Markus K. & Oehmke, Martin, 2013. "Bubbles, Financial Crises, and Systemic Risk," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1221-1288, Elsevier.
    9. 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.
    10. Albrecht Ritschl, 2012. "War 2008 das neue 1929? Richtige und falsche Vergleiche zwischen der Großen Depression der 1930er Jahre und der Großen Rezession von 2008," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 13, pages 36-57, May.
    11. Laurent Le Maux, 2021. "Bagehot for Central Bankers," Working Papers Series inetwp147, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    12. Philip E. Strahan, 2013. "Too Big to Fail: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 43-61, November.
    13. Dimitrios Bisias & Mark Flood & Andrew W. Lo & Stavros Valavanis, 2012. "A Survey of Systemic Risk Analytics," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 255-296, October.
    14. Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2013. "A Model of Shadow Banking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1331-1363, August.
    15. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2022. "Financial Intermediation and the Economy," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2022-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    16. Upper, Christian, 2011. "Simulation methods to assess the danger of contagion in interbank markets," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 111-125, August.
    17. Campbell, Gareth & Coyle, Christopher & Turner, John D., 2016. "This time is different: Causes and consequences of British banking instability over the long run," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 74-94.
    18. Mark A. Carlson & Burcu Duygan-Bump & William R. Nelson, 2015. "Why Do We Need Both Liquidity Regulations and a Lender of Last Resort? A Perspective from Federal Reserve Lending during the 2007-09 U.S. Financial Crisis," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-11, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Ebrahimi Kahou, Mahdi & Lehar, Alfred, 2017. "Macroprudential policy: A review," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 92-105.
    20. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Isabel Schnabel, 2014. "Bubbles and Central Banks: Historical Perspectives," Working Papers 1411, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 31 Oct 2014.

    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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0691. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Media Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.