Timeline
The beginnings
The revolution of 1688, which brought William and Mary to the
throne, gave England a measure of political stability unknown
for nearly a century. Commerce flourished, but the public finances
were weak and the system of money and credit was in disarray.
The goldsmith bankers had been damaged by the lax financial
management of the Stuart kings. There were calls for a national
or public bank to mobilise the nation's resources. Many schemes
were proposed. The successful one, from William Paterson, envisaged
a loan of £1,200,000 to the Government, in return for
which the subscribers would be incorporated as the "Governor
and Company of the Bank of England". Although the new bank would
have risked its entire capital by lending it to the Government,
the subscription proved popular and the money was raised in
a few weeks. The Royal Charter was sealed on 27 July 1694, and
the Bank started its role as the Government's banker and debt-manager,
which it continues today.
Open for business
The Bank opened for business a few days later in temporary accommodation
in the Mercers' Hall in Cheapside; it had a staff of seventeen
clerks and two gatekeepers. Later in the same year it moved
to the Grocers' Hall in Princes Street, which became its home
until 1734 when it acquired premises in Threadneedle Street.
Over the next hundred years it gradually acquired adjacent premises
until the present three-acre island site was secured, and Sir
John Soane's massive curtain wall was erected round it. This
still forms the outer wall of the Bank.
