The Delayed Modernization of the Central Banks of France and Spain in the Twentieth Century

In the overall process of modernization of note-issuing banks, a feature common to both the Bank of France and the Bank of Spain is that they did not become fully fledged central banks until relatively late in the twentieth century, certainly later than other European banks of issue such as the Bank of England or the Reichsbank. This widely held view has been clearly expounded, for example, by Forrest Capie, Charles Goodhart and Norbert Schnadt in their recent study of the phases in the development of the concept and practice of central banking in the industrialized nations (Capie et al., 1994).