The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-05 00:00:00

TIM BUSINESS OF THE BANK OF
ENGLAND.

The Lord Mayor of London gave a dinner at the
Mansion House on Monday night to the governor,
the governor-elect, and the court of directors of the
Bank of England. About 300 guests sat down.
The Governor of the Bank of England (Mr. Birch),
in the coie of his reply to the toast of the evening,
said that the business transacted by the Bank of Eng-
land had no parallel with that of any other establish-
ment in the world, inasmuch as it combined with an
ordinary banking business the management of the
National Debt and the issue and payment of the
greater portion of the note-circulation of the country.
Some idea of the magnitude of that work might be
formed when he told them that there were no less than
236,500 accounts open in the public funds; that the
number of bank-notes issued during the last year was
above 151 millions, representing a sum of 2338,000,00 Q,
and a similar amount cancelled, an accurate register
of each operation being kept, so that any note paid
Into the Bank during the last five years could
be produced within a minute or two, with information
as to the channel through which it had found its way
back to the Bank, although the register represented
77 millions of notes, stowed away in 14,500 boxes. If
stitched end to end those notes would extend to 12,500
miles.

The Times noticed Mr. Birch's speech in a leader, from
which we make the followinrt extract :

No fancy, not even that of a "calculating boy,"
could grasp the significance of fifteen and a quarter mil-
lions of bank-notes cancelled in a single year, and an
equivalent number issued or coined. Imagination
halts before such tremendous numerals. But if
the positive fact is immeasurable by human arith-
metical faculties, it can be understood in a manner
by its negation. To picture England without the
millions a notes continually replacing those which
have done their work is to picture every ordinary
transaction of English business life at once lamed
and crippled. A paper currency unguaranteed and
unballasted by solid bullion is a curse to any country
which has suffered its insinuating charms to prevail.
It steals in at every pore of commerce, and is a uni-
versal treacherous solvent. By the potency of its
poison if abused may be judged its benefit when held
wisely and honestly in hand.
A rigorous straightforwardness is the basis upon
which the utility of the public functions of the Bank of
England rests. It is the glory of the Bank and its
managers that this condition they have never failed to
fulfil. Their maxim has been, " Safe bind, safe find."
They balance gold sitting heavy in their cellars against
paper flitting through the regions of air. Vey do not
despatch on its travels a new note until they have can-
celled and locked up an old one. The rule seems mecha-
nical, had has been charged with folly. At the Mansion
House the Governor avowed, and gloried in the
avowal, that the management has been accused of
extravagance for creating fresh millions of notes
instead of reissuing the returned. His reply is to the
purpose. Whenever any question is mooted of the
identity and history of a note, there is no register
equal to the witness borne by the note itself, ever
accessible inside its iron chest, arrived at its Nirvana,
or whispering soft nothings to its retired fellows of
their strange experiences above. The same severe
vigilance has characterised the Bank in all its deal-
ings. . . .