TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Writes a fair hand and appears to be well qualified’
T2 - the recruitment of Bank of England clerks, 1800-1815
AU - Murphy, Anne
N1 - This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
PY - 2015/9/6
Y1 - 2015/9/6
N2 - The financial strains of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had a significant impact on the Bank of England. In its position as banker to the state and manager of the state’s debt, it experienced a significant increase in workload and thus was forced rapidly to expand its workforce. From a complement of around 300 in the mid-1780s, the number of clerks employed had increased to over 900 in 1815. Using a unique set of records preserved in the Bank’s archives, this article investigates the backgrounds and skills of the men recruited during the expansion of the early nineteenth century. It finds a significant gap between the skills required by the Bank and the skills possessed by its potential workforce.
AB - The financial strains of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had a significant impact on the Bank of England. In its position as banker to the state and manager of the state’s debt, it experienced a significant increase in workload and thus was forced rapidly to expand its workforce. From a complement of around 300 in the mid-1780s, the number of clerks employed had increased to over 900 in 1815. Using a unique set of records preserved in the Bank’s archives, this article investigates the backgrounds and skills of the men recruited during the expansion of the early nineteenth century. It finds a significant gap between the skills required by the Bank and the skills possessed by its potential workforce.
KW - banking; recruitment; human capital; skills.
U2 - 10.1017/S0968565015000013
DO - 10.1017/S0968565015000013
M3 - Article
SN - 0968-5650
VL - 22
SP - 19
EP - 44
JO - Financial History Review
JF - Financial History Review
IS - 1
ER -