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• Prefatory Note to the Eleventh Edition
• Prefatory Note to the Twelfth Edition
• Lombard Street To-day By Hartley Withers
• Lombard Street.
• Chapter I: Introductory
• Chapter II: A General View of Lombard Street
• Chapter III: How Lombard Street Came to Exist, and Why It Assumed Its Present Form
• Chapter IV: The Position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer In the Money Market
• Chapter V: The Mode In Which the Value of Money Is Settled In Lombard Street
• Chapter VI: Why Lombard Street Is Often Very Dull, and Sometimes Extremely Excited
• Chapter VII: A More Exact Account of the Mode In Which the Bank of England Has Discharged Its Duty of Retaining a Good Bank Reserve
• Chapter VIII: The Government of the Bank of England
• Chapter IX: The Joint Stock Banks
• Chapter X: The Private Banks
• Chapter XI: The Bill-brokers
• Chapter XII: The Principles Which Should Regulate the Amount of Banking Reserve to Be Kept By the Bank of England
• Chapter XIII: Conclusion
• Appendix I
• Note A. Liabilities and Cash Reserve of the Chief Banking Systems.
• Note B. Extract From Evidence Given By Mr. Alderman Salomons Before House of Commons Select Committee In 1858.
• Note D. Meeting of the Proprietors of the Bank of England. September 13, 1866.(FROM 'economist,' September 22, 1866.)
• Appendix Ii By E. Johnstone
• Note I
• Note Ii

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The composition of this little book has occupied a much longer time than, perhaps, my readers may think its length or its importance deserves. It was begun as long ago as the autumn of 1870; and though its progress has been often suspended by pressing occupations and imperfect health, I have never ceased to work at it when I could. But I fear that in consequence, in some casual illustrations at least, every part of the book may not seem, as the lawyers would say, "to speak from the same time." The figures and the examples which it is most natural to use at one time are not quite those which it is most natural to use at another; and a slowly written book on a living and changing subject is apt a little to want unity in this respect.

I fear that I must not expect a very favourable reception for this work. It speaks mainly of four sets of persons—the Bank of England, Joint Stock Banks other than that Bank, private bankers, and bill-brokers; and I am much afraid that neither will altogether like what is said of then. I can only say that the opinions now expressed have not been formed hastily or at a distance from the facts; that, on the contrary, they have been slowly matured in "Lombard Street" itself, and that, perhaps, as they will not be altogether pleasing to any one, I may at least ask for the credit of having been impartial in my criticism.

I should also say that I am indebted to a friend for the correction of the final proof sheets, which an attack of illness prevented me from fully revising. If it had not been for his kind assistance, the publication of the book must have been postponed till the autumn, which, as its production has already been so slow, would have been very annoying to me.

Walter Bagehot.

• The Poplars, Wimbledon

April 26, 1873