Seventy Years of Central Banking: The Bank of Canada in International Context, 1935-2005

On the seventieth birthday of the Bank of Canada, we evaluate the Bank's contribution to monetary policy in an international context. We focus on: the reasons for the establishment of the central bank in 1935, its unique record of floating in a sea of fixed currencies under Bretton Woods; its experience with the Great Inflation and monetarism; its pioneering adoption of inflation targeting; and recent innovations in the payments and the phasing out of reserve requirements.