The City's Defense

How the Bank of England reshaped the global economic order.

After the First World War, the Bank of England defended the City of London's status as the world's leading financial center. Through its subsequent interventions, the Bank redefined the structures of economic governance in an age of war, democracy, and depression.In The City's Defense, Robert Yee examines how the City of London maintained its status as an international financial center. He traces the role of the Bank of England in restructuring the domestic, imperial, European, and international monetary systems in the aftermath of the First World War. Responding to mass unemployment and volatile exchange rates, the Bank expanded its reach into areas outside the traditional scope of central banking, including industrial policy and foreign affairs. It designed a system of economic governance that reinforced the preeminence of sterling as a reserve currency. Drawing on a range of archival evidence from national governments, private corporations, and international organizations, Yee reevaluates our understanding of Britain's impact on the global economic order.