ABSTRACT
The British banking system is based on, and controlled by, the Bank of England. The power to check inflation by monetary policy must remain with the Bank, but, subject to this power, credit should be as cheap and abundant as possible. The Bank of England publishes only a Statistical Summary, which, though excellent of its kind, is almost entirely a digest of information obtainable elsewhere and devoid of explanatory comment. The joint-stock banks are responsible for the distribution between the conflicting claims of different industries and different kinds of borrowers of the volume of credit determined by the Bank of England. Currency policy concerns the value of the British currency in relation to other currencies; credit policy concerns the control of the domestic money market and the regulation of the supply of credit. At present British corporate finance have all the outward signs of privately-owned business although it is in fact increasingly owned by a large section of the public.
