An intimate account of the eighteenth-century Bank of England that shows how a private institution became -a great engine of state-
The eighteenth-century Bank of England was an institution that operated for the benefit of its shareholders-and yet came to be considered, as Adam Smith described it, -a great engine of state.- In Virtuous Bankers, Anne Murphy explores how this private organization became the guardian of the public credit upon which Britain-s economic and geopolitical power was based. Drawing on the voluminous and detailed minute books of a Committee of Inspection that examined the Bank-s workings in 1783-84, Murphy frames her account as -a day in the life- of the Bank of England, looking at a day-s worth of banking activities that ranged from the issuing of bank notes to the management of public funds.
Murphy discusses the bank as a domestic environment, a working environment, and a space to be protected against theft, fire, and revolt. She
