A Domestic History of the Bank of England, 1930–1960

This book, which is based on the Bank of England's own mainly unpublished archives, describes the internal workings of the bank from 1930 to 1960 under three governors, Lord Norman, Lord Catto and Lord Cobbold. Each chapter is devoted to the organisation and working methods of a particular department, such as Cashier's, Accountant's (now Registrar's), the Printing Works, Overseas, and so on, and the book includes the first published description of how the bank continued working during the Second World War, when many of its staff were evacuated to Hampshire and elsewhere. The book also contains information on the bank's accounting methods and profitability, and on the note issue including bank note design. These decades were a period of enormous change for the Bank, when its working methods (many dating back almost to its foundation in 1694) were radically updated and in some cases mechanised in a progression of record-keeping from handwritten ledgers to computers.