ABSTRACT
Marketable bonds issued by the UK government are usually called gilt-edged or gilts because the certificates issued to the purchasers of these securities used to be edged with gold (gilt) – unfortunately these have now been replaced by a much more prosaic statement of the owner’s asset. These securities have been actively traded in London for about 300 years. For much of this period the market gradually evolved with few major changes, but in the last twenty years it has had to adjust to a series of shocks (in the economists’ sense) administered by the authorities and to the technological change and globalization which have affected all financial markets. The London gilt-edged market has, however, been more affected than almost any other. It is the object of this chapter to describe and analyse this series of officially-wrought revolutionary changes. 1
