Beware of the tigers (TT Apr03 p20-22)

One hundred and fifty years ago this year James Wilson founded the Standard Chartered Bank. What was the world like in the days of James Wilson? Things were obviously different in many ways, but what is interesting are the similarities to many of the issues we face today. During the later part of the 19th century one of the main global issues was deflation. From 1870 up until the outbreak of World War One, prices fell across much of the world. But it wasn’t such a bad thing - in fact, there were periods of strong economic growth and high consumer spending.