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The role and performance of central banks has always been of critical concern to economists and politicians alike. The post-War concensus that viewed central banks as engaging in discretionary economic management has been replaced by controversy over the best means of controlling monetary growth and stopping inflation.

This important reference collection provides essential historical perspective to the whole issue of the most appropriate means of constituting and operating a central bank. Drawing on contributions from the 17th century to the present, it highlights the different approaches adopted by bankers, economists and politicians. The wide range of selected essays and papers draw on varying experience in a number of countries (including the US, the UK, Japan, Germany and Canada) and embraces two centuries of debate on the role of the central bank as the government's bank, as lender of last resort and as arbiter of monetary growth.