Bank Charter Act

A royal charter allowed the bank to operate as a joint-stock bank with limited liability. No other joint-stock banks were permitted in England and Wales until 1826. This special status and its position as the government’s banker gave the bank considerable competitive advantages.

…1844 (formally known as the Bank Charter Act) in turn awarded the Bank of England an eventual monopoly of paper currency by fixing the maximum note issues of other banks at levels outstanding just prior to the act’s passage while requiring banks to give up their note-issuing privileges upon merging…

The Bank Charter Act of 1844, establishing a tight connection between note issue and gold reserves, completed the foundations of the Victorian banking and currency system. The success of these measures encouraged Peel to launch a second great free-trade budget in 1845. The income tax was…

…earlier views, Tooke opposed the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which greatly limited the discretion of the Bank of England over the supply of currency. Tooke held that its rigid limits neglected deposits and caused damaging fluctuations in the rate of interest.