G8 - COMMITTEE OF TREASURY: MINUTES, AGENDAS ETC

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G8 - COMMITTEE OF TREASURY: MINUTES, AGENDAS ETC

Catalogue

Extent: 104 volumes

Admin History: The Committee originated as a standing (permanent) sub-committee appointed in August 1694 to 'attend the Lords of the Treasury'. Various matters were referred to it, all connected with the Treasury (HMT) and most relating to the financing of the war against France. In 1720 the Committee became the 'Committee for the Accounts and for the Treasury', but from 1764 it was known as the 'Committee of Treasury'.By the mid-late 18th century, the Committee of Treasury had formally absorbed the functions of a number of the Bank's other standing committees, such as the original Committee for Accounts and the Exchanges Committee; in other instances simply began conducting business which might have been considered the prerogative of other committees, such as ruling on staff matters, which was part of the functions of the House Committee. This consolidation of power enabled the Committee of Treasury to retain its reputation as the most influential of all the Bank's committees and its chief directive body. Although the composition of the Committee had been criticised on a number of occasions (notably Pickett in 1788 and Bagehot in 1873), its influence continued into the 20th Century, with the 1918 report of the Revelstoke Committee recommending, among other things, that the Governor and Deputy Governor should be obliged to inform the Committee of Treasury regarding the affairs of the Bank: thus the Committee remained particularly concerned with all matters relating to the general policy of the institution. In practice this meant that all matters requiring a decision of the Court were usually examined by the Committee of Treasury beforehand: in particular, all reports of Standing and Special Committees were submitted in the first instance to the Committee of Treasury before submission to the Court. The 1946 Banking Act, which saw the nationalisation of the Bank, caused almost no disturbance itself to the Bank's internal management and organisation, nor change the tasks and duties of Directors, however, by the 1950s the power of the Committee of Treasury began to be eroded by the Bank's increasing use of Advisers. During the latter-half of the 20th century the increase in special or ad hoc committees made considerable demands of Directors' time, and this, combined with the waning of its power led to the Committee of Treasury being wound up in the early 1990s, along with a number of other standing committees: the Staff Committee, the Debden Committee and the Securities Committee.In the early days the Committee consisted almost exclusively of former Governors up to a dozen in number. From 1918 it consisted of not more than seven members, including the Governor and Deputy Governor, who were ex-officio members. The members, other than the ex-officio members, were elected annually by the Court by free and secret ballot from amongst its own number, provided always that not more than one Executive Director was so elected.No early minutes have survived and although the Court ordered in 1721 that 'all ... Transactions ... be entered in a Book in Order to be reported from time to time to the Court', no evidence of this exists and the earliest surviving Minute book of the Committee begins in 1779. [References: 'The Bank of England' eds. Roberts and Kynaston, chapter 7, Hennessy, pp.185-216; 'The Bank of England - From its Foundation in 1694' by John Giuseppie, p. 143; 'The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979', Capie, p.37].

RefNo: G8

Date: 1779 - 1993

Related Material: 3A161

Level: Series

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