New Books in Economics 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, a Yale lecturer and economic historian of finance and central banking. He traces how the Bank of England transformed after World War I. Short takes cover its hiring of economists, overseas missions to build central banks, interventions in industry, tensions with the Treasury and the Fed, and policies that sustained sterling and London’s financial primacy.
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Banking Drove Britain's Lingering Influence
- Britain maintained global economic influence longer than expected through proactive central banking, not just imperial power.
- Robert Yee argues the Bank of England's post‑WWI actions explain much of sterling's prolonged prominence.
A Sleepy Bank Awakened By War
- The Bank of England was a small, insular elite dominated by merchant bankers before WWI disrupted its role.
- The 1914 crisis and six‑month London Stock Exchange closure forced bankers to rethink the central bank's purpose.
Economists Defended The Gold Standard
- The Bank recruited economists to intellectually defend returning to the gold standard despite public criticism.
- Their role was to justify stable exchange regimes and the Bank's stewardship after 1931's collapse.
