Handbook of Key Global Financial Markets, Institutions, and Infrastructure

Chapter 9

The Financial Revolution in England

A.L. Murphy

University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, UK

Outline

Introduction

The Origins of the Financial Revolution in England

The Development of the Instruments of State Debt

Controlling the Costs of Debt

The Question of Credibility

The Consequences of England’s Financial Revolution

Glossary

Further Reading

Introduction

By the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Britain had become the dominant power in Europe and had forged the beginnings of an empire which, at the end of the nineteenth century, was to cover around a quarter of the world’s land mass. But the price of winning a place as one of the great powers was high. Britain had been at war for a little over half the period between 1688 ...