Book Review: Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England

Authors

David L. Cleeton, Illinois State University

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

The American Economist

Abstract

In Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England, Anne Murphy performs an exemplary feat of historical reconstruction. While most economic histories focus on the high-altitude movements of capital or the grand political maneuvers of central banks, Murphy descends into the dust and ink of Threadneedle Street. By framing her study as a single, composite day in the life, she transforms a dry institutional history into a sensory, professionally guided experience of the 1780s.

Funding Source

This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Sage Journals.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

DOI

10.1177/0569434526143397

Comments

First published in The American Economist (2026): https://doi.org/10.1177/05694345261433971

Recommended Citation

Cleeton, D. L. (2026). Book review: Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England. The American Economist. https://doi.org/10.1177/05694345261433971