How much this was in the minds of the founders of the Bank of England may be judged of by the name which they gave it.

Its corporate name is the 'Governor and Company of the Bank of England.' So important did the founders think the executive that they mentioned it distinctly, and mentioned it first.
And not only is this constitution of a company the most natural in the early days when companies were new, it is also that which experience has shown to be the most efficient now that companies have long been tried.

Great railway companies are managed upon no other.

Scarcely any instance of great success in a railway can be mentioned in which the chairman has not been an active and judicious man of business, constantly attending to the affairs of the company.
A thousand instances of railway disaster can be easily found in which the chairman was only a nominal head--a nobleman, or something of that sort--chosen for show.

'Railway chairmanship' has become a profession, so much is efficiency valued in it, and so indispensable has ability been found to be.