The Clearing Banks and the Finance of British Industry, 1930-1959

This thesis has two goals. First, it refines our understanding of the role that the clearing banks in Britain played as providers of credit to industrial borrowers in the period between the Macmillan Committee of 1930 and the Radcliffe Committee of 1959. It then analyzes the banking system as a component of the monetary and credit structure in the economy. The conclusion reached is that industrial lending was a significantly more important aspect of banking business than has hitherto been appreciated, but that the banks themselves should be considered as one of a number of