New Books Network Robert Yee, "The City's Defense: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance, 1914-1939" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Jan 30, 2026
Robert Yee, lecturer at Yale in ethics, politics, and economics and author of The City's Defense, studies the Bank of England's transformation after WWI. He traces its turn toward hiring economists, shaping gold‑standard debates, exporting central banking, and extending influence into industrial policy and exchange controls. The conversation follows how these moves bolstered sterling and London’s financial standing.
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War Forced The Bank's Global Turn
- The Bank of England shifted from a city-focused bank to a central actor in global economic governance after WWI.
- Robert Yee argues the war forced the bank to broaden its remit and rethink its purpose to preserve London's financial dominance.
Prewar Bank: Insular Merchant-Banker Elite
- Before WWI the Bank of England was populated by a small merchant-banker elite focused on City stability.
- The 1914 closure of the London Stock Exchange exposed limits of that model and prompted institutional change.
Hiring Experts Was Strategic, Not Cosmetic
- Montagu Norman strategically hired economists and external experts to extend the bank's competence beyond traditional banking.
- These hires enabled the Bank to engage in foreign, imperial, and technical economic policy work.
