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1694

Bank of England

A war loan and a note issue. Not a copy of Amsterdam’s giro.

Colorized historical print showing the Bank of England building in London.
A view of the Bank of England, London — colorized from a public-domain print.Colorized from public-domain original. CC0 — Rijksmuseum (RP-P-2010-229).

In 1694 a private corporation was chartered as the Bank of England. The bargain was war finance: a loan to the Crown, and notes attached to that charter. Those notes became ordinary paper in London.

England’s later stop on gold payout (1797) and the return of gold in the 1820s are a different chapter. This year is the charter.

Bank of England →