189 - [MANUSCRIPT - FINANCE] FRANCIS, John. History of the Bank of England.

[MANUSCRIPT - FINANCE] FRANCIS, John. History of the Bank of England. An exceptional manuscript on financial history, the only known French translation of the *History of the Bank of England*, published in 1847. No place, no date [circa 1850–1860]. 2 tomes in 2 volumes, large quarto, brown half-shagreen, spine with raised bands accented by blind-stamped fillets. Approximately 300 folios for the first volume and 250 for the second. Spines sun-faded, minor wear from handling. Complete manuscript containing the unpublished full French translation of John Francis’s classic, *History of the Bank of England*, published in London in two volumes in 1847. The first volume contains XVII chapters and the second, IX. Written in cursive script in black ink, with fine regularity and legibility on lined register paper (for the first volume), the text is carefully structured. Volume 2 contains several financial tables listing, in particular, the “Foreign Loans Contracted in the Year 1824 ” (Austria, Brazil, Greece, Mexico, etc., with face values and purchase prices), as well as the balance sheets of the major speculative companies of the time (“Companies and Pleadings: Mines, Gas, Insurance…”). The author’s mastery of the banking and stock market terminology of the era suggests in-depth research conducted by an economist or a finance official. This *History of the Bank of England* is the major work of John Francis (1811–1882), a clerk at the famous financial institution. His account traces the bank’s evolution from its founding in 1694 through the Bank Charter Act of 1844. It blends major economic history—from the speculations of the South Sea Company to the crises of the Napoleonic Wars—with behind-the-scenes insights into British finance through numerous anecdotes and accounts of court cases, covering everything from the first stolen banknotes to the Duke of Choiseul’s famous political stratagem. Rare.