Central Banking and Policy Responses to the Crisis

Abstract

The history of central banking goes back to the seventeenth century, with the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609 (Quinn and Roberds, 2009), that was followed by the foundation of the Swedish Riksbank in 1668. One of the most well-known central banks in Europe, the Bank of England, was established in 1694 with the goal of purchasing government debt and financing the King’s military campaign. The establishment of the Banque de France in 1800 aimed to stabilize the hyperinflation of paper money and to aid government finance (Bordo, 2007; Lykogiannis, 2003).