The Bank's involvement in the commodity markets arose particularly from the need to develop exchange control arrangements after the War to permit the reactivation of these markets which were essential to both producing and consumer interests. It was also recognised that this business offered the opportunity for significant invisible earnings for the United Kingdom. These factors have led the Bank, with their general concern for the financial stability of markets, to maintain a general oversight of the commodity markets. This has involved the Bank in recent years in regular surveillance both of the markets' operations, e.g. the performance of contracts and the monitoring of excessive, possibly destabilising, positions; and of the regulatory regime administered by the market authorities.
Surveillance of the commodity markets - paper submitted to the Wilson Committee