The Bank of England: a Socio-Economic Inquiry Into Private Money Creation, Public Debt Financing and the Long Run Implications for Inequality in Britain and Beyond
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Faculty of Business, Law and Arts Business School University of Southampton University of Southampton The Bank of England: A Socio-Economic Inquiry into Private Money Creation, Public Debt Financing and the Long Run Implications for Inequality in Britain and beyond Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2018 by Plamen Ivanov Page 1 of 265 Abstract UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF BUSINESS, LAW AND ARTS Business School Doctor of Philosophy THE BANK OF ENGLAND: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC INQUIRY INTO PRIVATE MONEY CREATION, PUBLIC DEBT FINANCING AND THE LONG RUN IMPLICATIONS FOR INEQUALITY IN BRITAIN AND BEYOND By Plamen Ivanov This socio-economic inquiry investigates the roots of inequality and how this scourge was woven in the social fabric with the design of the institutional framework of private money and public debt for the benefit of a tight group of institutional entrepreneurs. Thus, I first examine the founders of the Bank of England and contextualise their role in the erection of this key capitalist firm, making use of historical organisation studies in the explicating mode. I find that the well-honed official narrative about the founding fathers of the Bank of England (William Paterson, Charles Montagu and Michael Godfrey) disintegrates once Pikettian examination across time and space is conducted. By juxtaposing theory and empirical evidence, I show that the French Church community of Threadneedle Street is a better identifier behind its creation. In the next chapter, by adopting the same research framework in the narrating mode, I reason that the credit issuance denationalisation by this small faction of identifiable Whig entre- preneurs and concurrently the legitimisation of this new social order with the Bank of England as its focal point was the centrepiece of the institutional shift in the late 17th century. This has resulted, contrary to North and Weingast’s promulgated hypothesis, in a rent-extracting institutional framework governed by a system of private money and public debt, where political resources flow from the many taxpayers to the few (Bank) shareholders through the fiscal apparatus. Chapter 3 then compares the current with the erstwhile institutional order with respect to the system of tax appropriation from the general public by using a novel approach which is in stark contrast with scholars who measure inequality within the same framework. This is followed by two empirical tests utilising a 250-year data set on the United Kingdom, which demonstrates the rent-extracting nature of the current pecuniary system. The qualitative and quantitative results place credit institutions at the centre of a rent-seeking institutional order that has defined societal rules on one hand and drawn resources from all other tax-paying layers of society on the other. Policy implications are discussed, including a proposal that aims to remedy the contemporary income and wealth inequality via the founding of a constellation of community banks with wide ownership structure, granulating the benefits from credit (money) creation and allocation, without the need for a large-scale redistribution and public sacrifice through rescinding national debt. (total word count: ≈52,700 excluding footnotes, tables, boxes, pictures, figures, referencing and appendices) Page 2 of 265 Page 3 of 265 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables, Figures and Graphs ..................................................................................... 6 Declaration of Authorship ................................................................................................ 8 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 10 Preface ........................................................................................................................... 14 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 22 Rationale for Research ........................................................................................................... 24 The Current Debate on Inequality ................................................................................................ 25 Chapter 1: Princes of the Pound .............................................................................................. 30 Chapter 2: The Forging of Capitalism ....................................................................................... 31 Chapter 3: The Roots of Economic Inequality .......................................................................... 32 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................... 33 Princes of the Pound: Who Masterminded the Creation of the Bank of England? ............ 34 Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 36 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 36 Integrating Management and Business with History ................................................................ 41 Historical Organisation Studies in the Explication Mode .............................................................. 43 Rhetorical History and Intertextuality .......................................................................................... 46 Archival Work ................................................................................................................................ 50 Institutional Entrepreneurship Literature ................................................................................ 54 Key Institutional Entrepreneurs in the Founding of the Bank of England .................................. 57 a) William Paterson ....................................................................................................................... 59 b) Charles Montagu ....................................................................................................................... 68 c) William of Orange ..................................................................................................................... 69 d) Michael Godfrey ....................................................................................................................... 71 e) The Houblons ............................................................................................................................ 73 Conclusion & Closing Remarks ................................................................................................ 77 The Forging of Capitalism and the Establishment of the Modern Institutional Order ....... 82 Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 84 Revisiting ‘Constitutions and Commitment’ ............................................................................ 84 How do 17th Century Economic Institutions Really Work? Theory vs. Empirical Evidence .......... 87 The Antwerp Agency: How did the Bank ‘remit’ money to Flanders? ....................................... 93 The Disremembered Anglo-Dutch Moment ........................................................................... 100 Historical Organisation Studies in the Narrating Mode .............................................................. 100 Context of the Institutional Change ............................................................................................ 103 The Founding of ‘Inclusive’ Political Institutions ........................................................................ 106 The Bank of England: A Guide to Its Establishment .................................................................... 108 Identifying North and Weingast’s Faceless Winners................................................................... 112 Policy Recommendation and Conclusion ............................................................................... 117 The Roots of Economic Inequality: Empirical Evidence from a 250-Year Data Set ........... 120 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 122 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 122 Page 4 of 265 A Brief History of Taxation in the United Kingdom ................................................................. 129 Empirical Analysis ................................................................................................................ 144 Data and Descriptive Statistics .................................................................................................... 145 Unit Roots Testing and Correlations ........................................................................................... 146 Model Specification .................................................................................................................... 147 Regression Estimation Results .................................................................................................... 148 Implication of Empirical Findings about the Contemporary Rent-Extracting Institutional Order