This thesis consists of two essays. The first essay of this thesis examines the role of creditor protection in the development of the UK corporate bond market. This market grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century, but in the twentieth century it experienced a reversal, albeit with a short-lived post-1945 renaissance. Such was the extent of the reversal that the market from the 1970s onwards was smaller than it had been in 1870. I find that law does not explain the variation in the size of this market over time. Alternatively, my evidence suggests that inflation and taxation policies were major drivers of this market in the twentieth century. The second essay analyses 181 years of share price history to assess the long-run stability of the British banking system, the macroeconomic indicators of this instability, as well as the consequences of banking instability for the cost of credit. While there were various degrees of banking instability throughout this sample period, the majority of this could be described as mild instability. The recent crisis of 2007/8 is the only stand-out severe crisis in the sample. I find that interest rates, inflation, and asset market prices are consistently significant triggers of banking instability. Furthermore, my main finding is that there is a significant relationship between banking instability and the cost of credit UK businesses face over the long-run.