It was a matter of minutes. The meeting on April 6, 1837, was the first one recorded in the sixtieth volume of the minute books of the Court of Directors of the Bank of England. A few pages in, a clerk’s clear penmanship noted a significant historical event not in terms of centuries, years, or even months, but as fractions of an hour. In perfectly formed oblique and horizontal lines, the clerk spelled out the situation:

In exactly ninety minutes, two of the world’s most powerful capitalists not only traveled to and from the British Empire’s political capital but also obtained a letter resolving any doubts about the role the government would play in the crisis. Although the two men had “waited” on the minister and although the long wait for transatlantic news had motivated George Wildes & Co. to seek the BOE’s assistance, no delay could be discerned in the decision of the BOE directors to save this failing firm.

Years later, another clerk transcribed these same minutes into a book labeled “American Accounts, 1836–1842” to justify the actions taken by the BOE in this climactic and controversial period. Twice written in the primary sources, the story of how the most powerful financiers in the world decided to bail out one of the world’s largest merchant banking firms with no collateral is worth retelling, even if we must return to the beginning of the panic in 1837.