La politique monétaire de la Grande-Bretagne, 1955-1956

British monetary policy 1955-1956 Price rises and an external deficit were the factors which, in 1955 and early 1956, called for remedial action by the authorities. The main causes of this situation are generally attributed to the investment boom and wage trends. However, inflationary pressure is not uniform and some sectors of the economy are either unaffected, or have already passed the inflationary phase. In order to deal with this situation, the authorities have had recourse to the use of monetary policy. The techniques of monetary control adopted have implied a rise in Bank rale and credit restrictions. The effects of a rise in Bank rate are not, however, the same today as in the past due to changes in fiscality, the financial structure of firms and the banking sector, and entrepreneurial expectation patterns. The small degree of success of the first increases in Bank rate as regards the volume of credit made it necessary to have recourse to direct intervention by the Treasury to obtain a reduction in bank advances. However, there are considerable differences of opinion in Great Britain both as to the type and degree of credit restrictions and the technical means of achieving the desired result. In order to clarify the discussion of these points, the technique of credit restriction and the structure of the banking sector in Great Britain are discussed. An analysis of the discussion regarding the appropriate technique of monetary control brings out the fact that whilst widely divergeant views exist as to the technical aspects of monetary policy a fair degree of unanimity prevails regarding the appropriateness of monetary controls to deal with the present situation. The policy of a deflationary restriction of credit is based, to a large extent, upon the quantity theory of money. However, whereas some writers stress the need to restrict the volume of money which, in Great Britain, means reducing the volume of bank deposits, others put more weight upon reducing the volume of bank loans. Nevertheless it is impossible, at the present lime, to base policy on an adequate statistical analysis recording the concrete effects of different policy measures. In particular, other measures,