Quotes from George Selgin

Moreover, stable prices foster saving and capital formation, because when the risk of erosion of asset values resulting from inflation—and the need to guard against such losses—are minimized, households are encouraged to save more and businesses are encouraged to invest more. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 2009)

Although I believe, like Bagehot, that central banks are inherently destabilising, that doesn't mean that you cannot have financial and economic instability without a central bank. Decentralised monetary systems, if poorly regulated, can also be unstable;