Anne Murphy

Historian and former City trader Professor Anne Murphy explains how the 18th-century Bank of England became a ‘great engine of the state’.

The Bank of England was a private institution that operated for the benefit of its shareholders. Murphy looks at how it became the guardian of public credit on which Britain’s economic and geopolitical power was based. She does this from the angle of a day in the life of the 18th-century bank, including its working environment, the skills and organisation of the bank clerks, its role as a property developer and its accessibility to the public. She shows how it delivered a set of services essential to the state and how it had the confidence of the public.

Murphy is professor of history at the University of Portsmouth. She worked for 12 years in the City of London trading interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives. She is also author of The Origins of the English Financial Markets.