Rehabilitation

Abstract

This chapter returns to the question who invented what in central banking. The review confirms broader and earlier origins of central banking, with particularly the early banks in Barcelona, Genoa, Naples, Venice, Amsterdam, and Hamburg having all made major contributions and actually having developed all central bank operations that would prevail until the early twentieth century (except discounting trade bills). The Bank of England invented the private ownership model based on a joint stock company, which became the template for most central bank creations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but has been considered outdated since the mid twentieth century. Moreover, it had the largest balance sheet amongst all central banks in the eighteenth century. The chapter ends with a list of 15 major current central bank topics which all can be traced back to before 1800, showing how relevant the study of early central banking remains.