Bank of England operations in the British government securities market, 1928 - 1972

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) William A. Allen, National Institute for Economic and Social Research

Version: View help for Version V1

Journal of Economic History Data Repository

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1928 - 29 (monthly).xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	300.4 KB	03/30/2020 01:21:AM
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1930 - 39 (monthly).xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	4.1 MB	04/01/2018 06:40:AM
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1940 - 54 (monthly).xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	3.2 MB	04/01/2018 06:58:AM
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1949 - 59 (weekly).xls	application/vnd.ms-excel	20.8 MB	09/17/2018 07:20:AM
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1960 - 70 (weekly).xls	application/vnd.ms-excel	41.3 MB	04/03/2018 08:05:AM
Bank of England gilt-edged transactions 1971 - 73 (weekly).xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	2.8 MB	04/03/2018 08:21:AM
Discount houses' gilt holdings, 1939 - 68.xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	535.5 KB	04/01/2018 09:55:AM
Notes to statistics of Bank of England operations in the gilt.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	133.5 KB	09/24/2018 02:01:AM

Project Citation:

Allen, William A. Bank of England operations in the British government securities market, 1928 - 1972. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-11-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E118563V1

Project Description

Summary:

This data set provides information about the operations of the Bank of England in the market for government securities between 1928 and 1972. It supports the narrative in my book 'The Bank of England and the government debt: operations in the gilt-edged market, 1928 - 1972' (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

The Bank of England's portfolio of government securities increased massively in 1928, when the Issue Department of the Bank absorbed the currency notes that has been issued by the Treasury since 1914, and the accompanying assets. The Issue Department became an increasingly influential participant in the market, underwriting new issues by the government. In the 1950s and 1960s it acted as market-maker of last resort, and this activity led to conflicts with its monetary policy objectives. It also provided covert financial support to the Stock Exchange jobber, who were the principal market-makers.

The conflict between market making and monetary policy was largely resolved in 1971, when the Bank of England curtailed its market-making activities.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: History of central banking; History of monetary policy; History of public debt management

Geographic Coverage: United Kingdom

Time Period(s): 1928 – 1972

Collection Date(s): 2012 – 2019

Universe:
Central bankers, government officials, traders in the Stock Exchange, bankers.

Data Type(s): administrative records data

Methodology

Data Source: Bank of England archives, British National Archives.

Collection Mode(s): record abstracts

Geographic Unit: United Kingdom

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-11-24]

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DDI 2.5

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