Ray Perman The Rise and Fall of The City of Money: A Financial History of Edinburgh

December 22, 2019

A few months after posting record results a major Scottish bank goes bust, impoverishing many of its shareholders and depressing the whole economy. Is this 2008?

No it is 130 years earlier – and despite the similarities with the 21st century credit crunch, there are differences. One is the speed with which the authorities acted: in 1878 the whole board of directors was arrested, put on trial and sent to prison.

Over ten years since the collapse of RBS and HBOS we are still waiting for the official report into the conduct of the directors. What can we learn from history?

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