During the hey days of the British Empire, the interest rate was stable, held at 5% for over a 100 years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/13/i

During the hey days of the British Empire, the interest rate was stable, held at 5% for over a 100 years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/13/interest-rates-uk-since-1694 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/13/interest... Meanwhile, today's 0.5% interest rate is unprecedented, a record low never seen before in the entire history of the Bank of England stretching back to 1694.