9  As an aside, it is from this era that we receive the term “bank”, which derives from the merchant’s bench, or banco, in the market places of medieval Italy (particularly Lombardy; Lombard Street in the City of London is named after this region of Italy, as King Edward I granted this piece of land to the goldsmiths of Lombardy).
10  Quinn and Roberds (2005). 11  Ferguson (2008). 12  Bagehot (1873). BIS Review 107/2010  3  a price set by a market. These innovations also spread to Northern Europe and, by the mideighteenth century, London had a well-developed bond market.