Under the steely editorship of Geoffrey Wood, this book brings together a stellar line of contributors - including Charles Goodhart, Harold James, Michael Bordo, Barry Eichengreen, Charles Calomiris, and Anna Schwartz. It analyzes many of the mainstream themes in economic and financial history - monetary policy, international financial regulation, economic performance, exchange rate systems, international trade, banking and financial markets - where historical perspectives are considered important.

Preface Mervyn King Introduction Nicholas Crafts, Terence Mills and Geoffrey Wood Part 1: Writing History 1. The Commissioned Historians of the Bank of England Charles Goodhart 2. The New Monetary and Financial History Barry Eichengreen Part 2: Crisis Management 3. English Financial Markets in the 1830s: Information Networks, Risk Assessment and Banking Crisis Michael Collins and Mae Baker 4. Implementing Bagehot's Rule in a World of Derivatives: the Banque de France as a Lender of Last Resort in the Nineteenth Century Eugene White 5. Banking Crises and the Rules of the Game Charles Calomiris Part 3: Money and Interest Rates 6. Money and Interest Rates in the United States during the Great Depression Peter Basile, John Landon-Lane and Hugh Rockoff 7. Two and a Half Centuries of British Interest Rates, Monetary Regimes and Inflation Terence Mills and Geoffrey Wood 8. Monetary Aggregates Restored? Capie and Webber revisited Alec Chrystal and Paul Mizen Part 4: Implications of Economic Integration 9. Does the euro need a fiscal union? Some lessons from history Michael Bordo, Lars Jonung and Agnieszka Markiewcz 10. Making a Central Bank Without A State Harold James 11. Openness, Protectionism and Britain's Productivity Performance Over the Long-Run Stephen Broadberry and Nicholas Crafts 12. The Price-cost Mark-up in the UK: A Long-run Perspective Nichoals Crafts and Terence Mills