The Paper Currency of England Dispassionately Considered: With Suggestions Towards a Practical Solution of the Difficulty — John Shaqi
The Paper Currency of England Dispassionately Considered: With Suggestions Towards a Practical Solution of the DifficultyHaslam, John (of Dublin)
History
The Paper Currency of England Dispassionately Considered: With Suggestions Towards a Practical Solution of the Difficulty
Haslam, John (of Dublin)
Currency question -- Great Britain
So far with respect to the operation of the present system in
augmenting the evils arising out of an excess of circulating medium,
together with our provision for preventing that augmentation. We have
still to justify our assertion that the present system also aggravates
the evils arising out of a deficiency of circulating medium, and
that our proposed system provides a remedy for this as well as the
former evil. And here the subject will demand a greater degree of
amplification. For a deficiency of circulating medium may arise out
of several different causes, each of which will require a special
consideration. To treat of them generally, in the first place, they
may be disposed of under two cases, the one proceeding from an actual
drain of the precious metals, the other arising out of the hoarding
of currency by merchants and bankers, through the dread of monetary
pressure. In point of fact, these two cases are not always kept
distinct; indeed the former is not unfrequently accompanied by the
latter. But it will be more convenient to treat of them separately, and
to dispose of the latter before proceeding with the former.
The principal instance of a domestic drain, that is of a scarcity of
money produced by domestic hoarding, which has occurred in recent
years, was that which took place in October, 1847. In this case, as is
well known, there was no actual deficiency of currency in the country
at the moment of pressure. There was no unfavourable exchange; on the
contrary, gold was steadily returning after the drain of the previous
twelve months. The apparent deficiency, therefore, as compared with the
pressure of the preceding April, originated solely in the accumulation
of currency by the merchants and bankers. And this accumulation is
admitted to have been caused exclusively by the knowledge that the
Bank of England was rapidly drawing towards the end of its resources,
under the law that limits the unrepresented issues to £14,000,000;
and the truth of this is clearly demonstrated by the fact, that the
temporary suspension of the Act of 1844, at once removed the panic
without requiring the issue of a single note beyond the statutable
limitation. Now, we contend that our provision for allowing the Bank of
England to issue unrepresented notes, beyond the £22,000,000 at present
allowed to be issued by the whole united banks of England and Wales,
subject to the charge of 4 per cent., would entirely preclude the
possible recurrence of any similar panic. For it was not the rate of
interest at which the Bank had been discounting in the previous months
that produced the alarm, but solely the knowledge that the reserve of
unrepresented notes was nearly exhausted, and that the provisions of
the Act prohibited the extension of that reserve, no matter what rate
of interest might be offered by the public for increased accommodation.
The certainty, therefore, that whenever the rate of interest should
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