Lombard Street: A Description of the Money MarketBagehot, Walter
History
Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market
Bagehot, Walter
Banks and banking -- England -- London; Banks and banking -- Great Britain; Finance -- England -- London; Finance -- Great Britain
'The importance of these declarations by the Bank is greater,
because after the panic of 1857 the bank did not hold exactly the
same language. A person who loves concise expressions said lately
"that Overends broke the Bank in 1866 because it went, and in 1857
because it was not let go." We need not too precisely examine such
language; the element of truth in it is very plain--the great advances
made to Overends were a principal event in the panic of 1857; the
bill-brokers were then very much what the bankers were lately they
were the borrowers who wanted sudden and incalculable advances. But
the bill-brokers were told not to expect the like again. But
Alderman Salomons, on the part of the London bankers, said, "he
wished to take that opportunity of stating that he believed nothing
could be more satisfactory to the managers and shareholders of joint
stock banks than the testimony which the Governor of the Bank of
England had that day borne to the sound and honourable manner in
which their business was conducted. It was manifestly desirable that
the joint stock banks and the banking interest generally should work
in harmony with the Bank of England; and he sincerely thanked the
Governor of the Bank for the kindly manner in which he had alluded
to the mode in which the joint stock banks had met the late monetary
crisis." The Bank of England agrees to give other banks the
requisite assistance in case of need, and the other banks agree to
ask for it.
'Secondly. The Bank agrees, in fact, if not in name, to make limited
advances on proper security to anyone who applies for it. On the
present occasion 45,000,000 L. was so advanced in three months. And
the Bank do not say to the mercantile community, or to the bankers,
"Do not come to us again. We helped you once. But do not look upon
it as a precedent. We will not help you again." On the contrary, the
evident and intended implication is that under like circumstances
the Bank would act again as it has now acted.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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