The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-09 00:00:00

JOINT-STOCK BANKS.

The new number of the British and Foreign Re-
view contains an article under the title of " Coin and
Currency." The article, instead of discussing fully
and fearlessly the question of banking, which occu-
s
pies so much of public attention at this moment, prin-
cipally consists of a retrospect of the history of bank-
ing in England. So far, however, as the writer's
views ean be discovered from the casual references to
the principles on which the business of banking ought
to be conducted, he concurs with us in the opinion
that the joint-stock banks have been of the greatest
service to the country, and that any attempt on the
part of the Government to interfere with them ought
to be resisted by every constitutional means.
There is a very decided and general impression in
the monetary circles of the country, that Ministers
contemplate some important changes in reference to '
the constitution and powers of the joint-stock bank-
ing companies. The impression, we fear, is too well
grounded. Deputation after deputation from the
directors or the joint-stock banks have, within the
last few weeks, waited on Sir Robert Peel, with a
view to learn his intention in relation to these esta-
blishments. Not an atom of information on the sub-
ject could be elicited from him. He shrouds his
designs in the deepest darkness. The conclusion to
which the joint-stock banking companies have con-
sequently come is, that he does meditate some inva-
sion of their powers and privileges. If he do in any
way assail these associations, he will soon discover
that he never committed a greater act of folly for
himself as he could not contemplate one more fraught
with evils to the country: It will be strange indeed
if, instead of curtailing the exclusive privileges of the
Bank of England, as every one expected he would
when the question of a renewal of the charter came
to be discussed, he should bring forward a measure
for abridging the resources and impairing the useful-
ness of the joint-stock banks.
Though the Premier persists, in defiance of all the
entreaties for information, of those who are most in-
terested, in concealing his intentions either as regards
the colossal corporation in Threadneedle-street or the
joint-stock banks throughout the country, the period
is at hand when he must make an unreserved revela-
tion of his plans and purposes. Immediately after the
Easter recess he is to make an exposé of his intentions
and measures in reference to the question of the cur-
rency. Until then, we suppose, we must wait with phi-
losophical patience. One feature, we have reason to be-
lieve, in his future banking policy, will be to deprive the
oint-stock banks of their right to issue notes of their
own, and to confer on the Bank of England the ex-
clusive privilege of making paper issues. There is
something so evidently fraught with the most serious
mischiefs to the monetary interests of the country, in
any scheme of this kind, that did not what seems to
us irresistible evidence of the fact crowd upon U 3
from all quarters, we could not believe that such an
idea had ever entered the Premier's mind. To with-
draw from the joint-stock banks the privilege of
issuing their own notes, will be in many, perhaps the
majority of cases, the same as if these banks were to
be annihilated by Act of Parliament. Sir Robert
Peel professes to be a great stickler for maintaining
vested interests : if he carry his understood intention
into effect, he will earn for himself the unenviable re-
putation of having committed a wholesale robbery of
the shareholders in joint-stock-banking companies.
Divest them of the right to issue their own notes, and
you despoil them at once of their property. Their
mein source of profit lies in their having a paper issue
of their own. It was on the faith of such right being
continued that they commenced business ; without it
business could. not, in many instances, be carried on
without incurring a ruinous loss. Consequently,
should the Premier persist in his understood purposes,
the joint-stock banking business will receive a blow,
from the effects of which it will never recover.
Nor will the injury in the supposed case be con-
fined to the shareholders : it will be extended to and
deeply felt by the public. The infinite service which
the joint-F,toek banks have been able to render to the
country, has• been chiefly throUgh means of their
privilege to make issues of their own purr. The
country knows, and is forward to acknowledge, the
services of the joint-stock banks. But for them the
national distress would, in times of pressure,. have
issue", in all probability, in a national bankruptcy.
They.alone, on repeated occasions, have neutralised
the injurious effects of capricious contractions of the
currency, on the part of the Bank of England.
To; deprive the joint-stock banks of the right to
issue notes of their own, and to place, as it is sup-
posed. the Premier means to do, the entire paper cur-
rency of the country in. the hands of the monetary
monopolists in Threadneedle-street, would be one
of the most audacious anti-free-trade deeds ever
perpetrated. It would be the grossest outrage and
greatest insult to the country, which ever
Toryism committed in the days of its unresisted do-
mination. The country loudly complains of the
extent to which it already suffers from the caprices
of the Bank o: England ; and Peel purposes to
place the nation still more at the mercy of that gigan-
tic establishment. The cry everywhere is—in Eng-
land; Scotland, and Ireland, for an abridgment Of the
present powers of the Bank; and Peel purposes to
confer upon it much more enlarged and important
powers than ever. The country calls, in the spirit of
free-In:fie principles, for an extinction of the mone-
tary monopoly so long enjoyed by the Bank,; and
the Premier intends-to make that monopoly greater
than before. This is progrers in flee-trade principles
'with a vengeance. It is the crab-like progress of
going backwards.
Bat will Ministers succeed in carrying out their
currency projects ? It will be passing strange if they
do. We have too much faith in the omnipotence of
public opinion, when fairly and fully expressed, to
suppose that any Government v; ill be suffered to an-
nihilate the joint-stock banks, merely to play into
the hands of a corporate band of monopolists, who
are ambitious of possessing an exclusive control over
the currency, and the consequent monetary destinies,
of the country. Of this we are certain—that the
most vigorous and determined opposition which Peel
has-had to encounter on any measure, is now in the
course of organisation on this question.—. Advertiser.