This book was written at a time when the market for government stocks in London, the gilt-edged market of the title, had undergone a period of rapid innovation in the forms of its instruments – index-linked stocks, variable rate stocks, and other new types – and of methods of issue. This had been the response of a government that had needed to fund a massive public sector borrowing requirement despite its attempts to slash public expenditure. In the same period the opening of the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE), with its 20-year gilt contract, had introduced a new method for hedging risk for investment managers. This book charts and analyses these developments.