Institutions and rules matter.
“By binding the Crown to honor commitments that Parliament had sanctioned, England created what modern economists would recognize as a credible commitment mechanism. The sovereign could no longer expropriate creditors through inflation, default, or arbitrary taxation without legislative consent. This made English debt something approaching a safe asset in an era when no such thing existed elsewhere.”
https://tantaman.com/2025-01-01-financial-power-and-imperial-rule