Bagehot and the stabilising function of central banks

The analysis of Lombard Street focuses on two dimensions that have received little attention: (1) Bagehot’s analysis of the systemic financial interdependencies between the functional poles of creditors and debtors in financial markets; and (2) the significance of trust and expectations in the functioning of these promise-to-pay markets. These dimensions lead us to Bagehot’s well-known principles of central bank responsibility in the historical legislative-political context of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Despite its publication 150 years ago, this book deals with the then new and still relevant finance-based interdependencies where functional roles need to be redefined and restructured.