First published in 1951, The British Banking Mechanism seeks to enable the reader to obtain a real understanding of the British financial system as it operated back in the 1950s.The book shows how the traditional concept of the Bank of England as the supreme monetary authority controlling the volume of credit has to be modified now that the government, instead of private industry, is the chief borrower from the banking system. This book is of historical importance for scholars and students of banking history, British banking and British economics.