BILLY AND THE BANK

 In the beginning, Good King Billy won the hearts and minds of the ordinary English people. They feared the spectre of another catholic king, partly because they themselves were Protestants, partly because their lords and masters were split down the middle on religious lines. Nobody wanted another civil war. They were happy with half the nobility following the rites and rituals of the village church, while the rest kept their beliefs to themselves and their private chapels.

But Billy, the orange prince, also brought in new ideas with the power to unite the merchant class and landed gentry under the common cause of war and profit. It had worked back home in Holland, which had surged ahead with commerce and trade, while fighting a bloody war with Catholic Spain and the dreaded Habsburg dynasty, to secure its independence.

 

Amsterdam had a new kind of bank, funded by public subscription, managed by shareholders, funding the war with Spain. They offered a win-win proposition. Help your city fight the dragon by lending money at a guaranteed interest and low risk. "Because the books are kept by the very merchants who built the prosperity you now see all around."

This Dutch connection spawned the Bank of England, founded soon after Billy's arrival as independent managers of the National debt. Merchants now had a stake in warfare with rival France and rose to the challenge. Their money funded War production on a massive scale.

 

The blacksmiths and carpenters of England were proud artisans. With the coming of the printing press, they had learned to read. They could sing their hymns together in English, from printed sheets.

Some of them were drawn into the growing towns, and to the workshops of the naval dockyards. Building a new navy on a grand scale was a project that tapped into their native talents and raw energy. Out of the cauldron of iron smelting came new ideas. Mass production of nails, the churning out of wooden blocks for ships rigging.

 

 

Sailors needed uniforms and cottage weavers rose to the challenge. The race was on. Sharp minds stumbled upon little tricks to speed the work. Tap the flying shuttle sharply with a stick. If only one person could run two spinning wheels at once.🤔 These were the birth pangs of the Industrial Revolution with the old lady of Threadneedle Street cast in the role of midwife.

 

You can read history from buildings. They tell stories like the one about King Billy and a new kind of bank. The old lady lived three lives, or perhaps she had three husbands. Mrs Sampson, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Soane. What a roller-coaster ride for the old lady, aka the Bank of England

 

Time came for the old lady to move onward and upward. Business was good. More space, more prestige, gimme, gimme.

Enter stage right Sir Robert a man of style and taste, an artist, sculptor, with a wig. He knew how to make a big splash. He took Mr Sampsons centrepiece and expanded it into a Palace. It was a bit shoddy. More stage-set than solid long-term investment.

But it met the mood of the moment. Someone else could deal with the consequences.