The City’s Defense examines how the City of London maintained its status as an international financial center. The book traces the role of the Bank of England in restructuring the domestic, imperial, European, and international monetary systems in the aftermath of the First World War. Responding to mass unemployment and volatile exchange rates, the Bank expanded its reach into areas outside the traditional scope of central banking, including industrial policy and foreign affairs. It designed a system of economic governance that reinforced the preeminence of sterling as a reserve currency. Drawing on a range of archival evidence from national governments, private corporations, and international organizations, the book reevaluates our understanding of Britain’s impact on the global economic order.

Reviews of The City’s Defense

“Central banks today are regarded as powerful institutions led by technical experts. This fascinating book situates the historical origins of technical expertise in central banking in the interwar period. Robert Yee shows how the Bank of England’s transformation from an institution led by bankers to one guided by experts helped expand its influence into new areas, both domestically and globally. An essential read for anyone interested in the origins of modern central banking.”

Olivier Accominotti, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics

“The interwar period was arguably when the powers of the Bank of England, and its efforts to shape the British and global economies were at their height. Robert Yee provides new insight into the development of the ‘Bank View’ that informed these initiatives. Readers may think this is familiar terrain – until they encounter Yee’s new and illuminating analysis.”

Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee & Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

“British historians have long discussed the battle between Keynes and the ‘Treasury view’. Yee’s meticulous research and subtle analysis brilliantly recovers the ‘Bank view’ that emerged as the Bank of England shifted from the management of the London money market to a wider concern for the domestic and global economy. The City’s Defence is a major contribution both to the economic history of Britain and the history of the governance of the global economy. The global economy is again in turmoil – Yee’s timely book shows how an earlier generation grappled with economic and geopolitical crises.”

Martin Daunton, Emeritus Professor of Economic History, University of Cambridge

Current Research

My current book project explores the politics of banking regulation in Germany, c. 1870–1945. Exploring the links between national security and economic policy, the book shows how banking legislation evolved to address various government priorities, such as securing access to foreign credit and funding wartime expenditures. Through the work of bankers, diplomats, industrialists and civil servants, regulation served a political purpose, reflecting the shifting geopolitical priorities of the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich.

Another project looks at the rise of economic democracy in interwar Europe. I show how the expansion of the franchise to women and men in 1918 compelled political parties to adapt their electoral strategies and tailor economic concerns to a broader voting public. Drawing on archives from across Britain, Germany, and Austria, my book will demonstrate how monetary and fiscal policy entered civic discourse.

These research projects have been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the American Council on Germany, the Embassy of France’s Chateaubriand Fellowship, the Anglo-Austrian Society, Harvard Business School, and the Centre for History and Economics at the University of Cambridge.

Past Research

My past work has dealt with a range of topics, including the history of banking regulation in Germany, role of gold in shaping the Bank of France’s monetary policy; the influence of experts in implementing post-WW1 monetary reforms; and the origins of economic statistics among the central banks of Europe.

Wartime Finance

The Third Reich established a new financial order in Central Europe. My article in Central European History examines one aspect of these changes, namely the evolution of banking law. After the seizure of power in 1933, Nazi officials weaponized financial and legal institutions to support the rearmament campaign. Driven by more than a desire for self-sufficiency (autarky) and expropriative control, the authorities devised a system of economic governance that perpetuated the conflict.

Banking Regulation

The 1934 Reich Banking Law was the first comprehensive regulation over the entire German banking system. It imposed new reporting guidelines, set liquidity standards, and managed the distribution of licenses. My article in the Business History Review traces the development of banking regulation as a matter of national security. By enacting new statutory requirements over liquidity and lending, state officials and central bankers sought to protect the German economy from foreign crises.

Economic Statistics

After the First World War, European central banks turned to experts for standardizing economic statistics. My article in Contemporary European History explores how the work of national central banks became compatible with the broader goals of interwar internationalism. Using archives from Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and the US, the article shows how efforts to align statistical terminology aimed to improve diplomatic relations.

Monetary Policy

Using the Bank of France’s weekly balance sheets, this project, published in Studies in Applied Economics, investigates the importance of gold and foreign-exchange reserves to monetary policies. It shows how frequent changes in the central bank’s holdings, coupled with adjustments to the discount rate and the procurement of foreign loans, reflected the changing priorities of the central bank in times of crisis.

Finance and Geopolitics

Economic advisers played a key role in the debates over Germany’s post-World War I reparations . In an advisory capacity, they offered policy recommendations to the members of the Dawes Committee in 1924 to address escalating geopolitical conflict. My research published in the Financial History Review shows how economists simultaneously aimed to resolve the fiscal problem of inflation and the geopolitical crisis of the 1923 Franco-Belgian invasion of the Ruhr.