Commonwealth Central Bank
| Type | Central bank (defunct) |
|---|---|
| Founded | Second Monarchy of Hamland (as the Royal National Bank) |
| Headquarters | New Kirrie |
| Jurisdiction | Commonwealth of Hamland |
| Owner | Government of the Commonwealth of Hamland |
| Currency | Hammish Obol (Ø) |
The Commonwealth Central Bank, formerly the Royal National Bank, was the central bank of the Commonwealth of Hamland, seated in the Commonwealth capital of New Kirrie. Together with the Ministry of the Coin it governed those areas of Commonwealth monetary policy that fell outside the Small Commonwealth Unified Economy, the shared-credit union whose currencies included the Commonwealth's own Hammish Obol.
The bank began under the Kingdom of Hamland as the Royal National Bank, the nationalized sole bank of the country. It carried into the Commonwealth of Hamland on the Kingdom's reconstitution and was in time reorganized as the Commonwealth Central Bank, the word Royal giving way to Commonwealth as the Commonwealth's own institutions took shape.
History
The Royal National Bank was founded during the Second Monarchy of Hamland to bring the national economy under central direction. It was established as a nationalized institution and was the country's sole bank, with the monarch, King Lewis I, as its nominal head and its operations directed by the Chancellor of Hamland. Through this period the whole of the kingdom's banking was concentrated in a single state-owned body.
The reform of the Kingdom of Hamland into the Commonwealth of Hamland brought the bank into the new federal state, where it was reintroduced during a Commonwealth-era general election. As the Commonwealth's monetary institutions developed, the bank was refounded as the principal savings and investment bank of the Commonwealth and reorganized as the Commonwealth Central Bank.
Functions
The Commonwealth Central Bank, together with the Ministry of the Coin, oversaw those Commonwealth monetary matters that fell outside the Small Commonwealth Unified Economy. The Commonwealth's currency, the Hammish Obol, which had replaced the earlier Ham-mark, was Hamland's denomination of the credit shared through that union. That same credit was issued elsewhere under other names, such as the Haifan Lliev of the Free State of Haifa.
Associated states of the Commonwealth kept no central bank of their own. The Free State of Haifa maintained none, its share of the shared credit administered through the Commonwealth's own institutions, and on the Free State's dissolution the Commonwealth allocated it a reserve of 16,762.85 obols for investment. The constituent nations of the Commonwealth could print their own designs of Obol note, though only Passas did so.
