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The continental wars of King William were expensive. As a result, England was forced to raise a considerable national debt. In 1694, William Paterson (a Scotsman) founded the Bank of England to assist the crown by managing the public debt.The Bank of England became the national reserve for the British Isles. In 1697, its position of prominence was secured when parliament forbade the formation of any further joint-stock banks in England (a writ that did not run in the legislatively independent Scotland - where the Bank of Scotland was established, by an Englishman, in 1695).
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