Norges Bank has been an integrated part of Norwegian economic development since the complicated birth of the new nation-state after the Napoleonic wars. This book traces its 200-year history, focusing on its relations with political institutions that have shaped and reshaped the bank's role since its establishment in 1816.

Offers a comprehensive analysis of the historical experiences of monetary policymaking of the world's largest central banks. Written in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the central bank of Sweden, Sveriges Riksbank. Includes chapters on other banks around the world written by leading economic scholars.

This book provides a broad overview of monetary developments in Norway over the past 200 years, using a rich variety of graphical illustrations based on a unique data set of historical monetary statistics, which will be documented and made available on the Norges Bank website (in English) at http://www.norges-bank.no/en. Throughout the book, Norway's monetary developments are anchored in a historical context and in the development of monetary thinking. Through their analysis of the historical data, the authors provide new insights and comparisons to other Scandinavian countries, along with an excellent examination of the development and character of the banking and financial system in Norway.

This book discusses the role of central banks and draws lessons from examining their evolution over the past two centuries.

The remarkably successful gold standard before 1914 was the first international monetary regime. This book addresses the experience of the gold standard peripheries; i.e. regime takers with limited influence on the regime. How did small countries adjust to an international monetary regime with seemingly little room for policy autonomy?

Norges Bank has been an integrated part of Norwegian economic development from the complicated birth of the new nation-state after the Napoleonic wars to the present nouveau-richness of the Norwegian oil economy. This book traces its 200-year history, focusing on its relations with political institutions that have shaped and reshaped the bank's role since its establishment in 1816. In the first fragile years of the new nation, Norges Bank took centre stage in the discussion on how to reconstruct a collapsed monetary system, and how trust and resources should support the core financial function of the State apparatus. The financial and political role of the bank came to the fore from the late 1800s and peaked during the turbulent interwar years of the 1920s, after which the bank became the foremost defender of the monetary order and the gold standard, in bitter conflict with the emerging Labour Party. The blow that the Second World War delivered to central bank independence left the bank firmly subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. Not until 1986 was larger autonomy in monetary policy granted, and since then the bank's weight and responsibilities have continued to expand with its position as manager of the Norwegian oil fund. The bank's role has been largely defined by perceptions of what kind of financial services Norway needed, how economic policy was coordinated, and how discretionary power was distributed between the elected bodies, the executive branch, and underlying institutions with a defined mandate. The central aim of this book is to trace and explain these changes over the past two centuries.

In European Small States and the Role of Consuls in the Age of Empire Aryo Makko argues that Sweden and Norway participated in the New Imperialism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through consular services. Usually portrayed as nations without an imperial past, Makko demonstrates that their role in the processes of imperialism and colonialism during that period can be understood by including consular affairs and practices of informal imperialism into the analysis. With this, he contributes to our understanding of the role of smaller states in the so-called Age of Empire. Aryo Makko, Ph.D. (2012), Stockholm University, is Associate Professor of History at that university and a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS). He is also a member of the Young Academy of Sweden.

The first twenty years of the European Central Bank offer a unique insight into how a central bank can navigate macroeconomic insecurity and crisis. This volume examines the structures and decision-making processes behind the complex measures taken by the ECB to tackle some of the toughest economic challenges in the history of modern Europe.