The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IVGreville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- George IV, 1820-1830; Great Britain -- History -- William IV, 1830-1837
The last three months have been remarkable for the panic in the
money market, which lasted for a week or ten days--that is, was
at its height for that time. The causes of it had been brewing
for some months before, and he must be a sanguine and sagacious
politician who shall predict the termination of its effects.
There is now no panic, but the greatest alarm, and every prospect
of great distress, and long continuation of it. The state of the
City, and the terror of all the bankers and merchants, as well as
of all owners of property, is not to be conceived but by those
who witnessed it. This critical period drew forth many examples
of great and confiding liberality, as well as some of a very
opposite character. Men of great wealth and parsimonious habits
came and placed their whole fortunes at the disposal of their
bankers in order to support their credit. For many days the evil
continued to augment so rapidly, and the demands upon the Bank
were so great and increasing; that a Bank restriction was
expected by everyone. So determined, however, were Ministers
against this measure, that rather than yield to it they suffered
the Bank to run the greatest risk of stopping; for on the evening
of the day on which the alarm was at its worst there were only
8,000 sovereigns left in the till.[1] The next day gold was
poured in, and from that time things got better.
[1] [Mr. Baring (Lord Ashburton) stated in his pamphlet on
this crisis, 'The gold of the Bank was drained to
within a very few thousand pounds, for although the
public returns showed a result rather less scandalous,
a certain Saturday night closed with nothing worth
mentioning. It was then that the Bank applied to Lord
Liverpool for an Order in Council to suspend cash
payment. A conference took place between Lord
Liverpool, Mr. Huskisson, the governor of the Bank, and
Mr. Baring. The suspension of cash payments was happily
averted, chiefly as it was said by the accidental
discovery of a box of one-pound Bank of England notes,
to the amount of a million and a half, which had never
been issued, and which the public were content to
receive.' Mr. Tooke, however, states in his 'History of
Prices' (Continuation, vol. iv. p. 342) that the lowest
amount of the banking treasure was on the 24th of
December, 1825: Coin, £426,000; bullion, £601,000: in
all, £1,027,000. The passage in the text refers of
course to the banking department only.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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