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First published 1873

Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market

by Walter Bagehot

London: Henry S. King, 1873 (3rd ed.); Online Library of Liberty edition163 pages

Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market by Walter Bagehot is available as a free PDF and EPUB download at freecapitalists.org.

Author
Walter Bagehot
First published
1873
Format
PDF and EPUB
Pages
163
Publisher
London: Henry S. King, 1873 (3rd ed.); Online Library of Liberty edition
License
Public domain by publication date.

Bagehot's 1873 description of the London money market and the Bank of England's place in it. He explains how a fractional gold reserve is held centrally, why panics happen, and sets out the rule that a central bank should lend freely in a crisis against good collateral at a high rate. The book remains the classic source for that lender-of-last-resort doctrine.

What's in it

32 chapters · 85,254 words · free to read here

  1. Econlib Editor's Notes
  2. Advertisement
  3. Prefatory Note to the Twelfth Edition
  4. LOMBARD STREET TO-DAY by Hartley Withers
  5. The Cheque Currency of To-day.
  6. The Banknote and the Fiduciary Issue.
  7. The Power of the Outer Banks.
  8. The Problem Modified.
  9. Chapter I: Introductory
  10. I
  11. II
  12. I
  13. II.
  14. Chapter IV: The Position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Money Market
  15. Chapter V: The Mode in Which the Value of Money is Settled in Lombard Street
  16. Chapter VI: Why Lombard Street Is Often Very Dull, and Sometimes Extremely Excited
  17. Chapter VII: A More Exact Account of the Mode in Which the Bank of England Has Discharged Its Duty of Retaining a Good Bank Reserve
  18. II.
  19. Chapter VIII: The Government of the Bank of England
  20. Chapter IX: The Joint Stock Banks
  21. Chapter X: The Private Banks
  22. Chapter XI: The Bill-Brokers
  23. Chapter XII: The Principles Which Should Regulate the Amount of Banking Reserve to be Kept by the Bank of England
  24. Chapter XIII: Conclusion
  25. Note A. Liabilities and Cash Reserve of the Chief Banking Systems.
  26. Note B. Extract from Evidence Given by Mr. Alderman Salomons before House of Commons Select Committee in 1858.
  27. Note D. Meeting of the Proprietors of the Bank of England. September 13, 1866. (From 'Economist,' September 22, 1866.)
  28. Note I
  29. NOTE II
  30. About Liberty Fund
  31. The Online Library of Liberty
  32. Copyright Information

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