ABSTRACT
The chapter presents two case studies. The Bank of England suffered a crisis of confidence in the convertibility of its banknotes (February, 1799). The House of Commons was unable to craft the procedures required to manage financial business in the run-up to these events; the House was obliged to catch up on three years of overdue financial analysis and reporting. The United States Senate, on the other hand, made careful and considered progress in maturing new procedural rules governing Senate ratification of treaties; these were duly wrapped into an expanded code of procedural rules in 1801. Each study illustrates how members of Commons and the Senate went about assessing their respective institutional experience in rule-writing and rule-revising.
