The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-05 00:00:00

s'~'►.

•Axe-V

-413, w

- -,
THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND THE st
COUNTRY BANKERS. ;4.1'

TO TUE EDITOR OF THE TYNE MERCURY.

" Once more unto de breach—"
_ _

SlR—Public feeling being at length roused to
a sense of the inconvenience and detriment which
the proposed establishment of a branch .of the
Bank of. England in Newcastle must. inevitably
inflict on the commerce and manufactures of this
town and neighbourhood, I may Yenture,_ with-
out being thought tedious or intrusive, :to offer
to yourself and your reader, a few . additional
reasons why-it becomes us to oppose, by every
means is our power, the threatened innovation
of the Bank of England on a system of monied
operations • which experience has proved-to have
been eminently conducive to the advantages of
this part of the country. Under the existing
system of banking, we have seen that the indus-
try and enterprise of the people have received the
most effectual support and encouragement. Let
any man but look at the important concerns in
mining, in ship-building, and in manufactures of
various descriptions—let any man but. look to
the activity of commerce, of navigation, and of
the general business of retail, as carried on, or
to be observed, within a circuit of 15 miles of
Newcastle, and the most complete proof must
be afforded to him of the efficacy and advantage
and
o fo of
merely
aroenvlkeyri ngtgroo.
wn establish-
ment,
a s e under
the
otpi floeNsv oureerc
alprner edu sine;
sai ttt sonyne seat
sge,me
we must be subjected to an experiment
Of banking which may put to hazard the most
important interests of the district. Well
might the Chamber of Commerce be unani-
mous in the adoption of a memorial to the direc-
tors of the Bank of England, setting forth the
inexpediency of any interference on the part of
the bank, with a system of credit and currency
from which so many, and such important ad-
vantages have been derived. The memorial
might have gone further, and shown the posi-
tive loss to which manufacturers and others, who
have large sums to pay for duties or excise, must
be necessarily exposed. It is well known that
for the remittance of the public money, the
bankers are now required to give bills at so very
short a date as to make the transation :~;''her
losing than profitable. They submit however to
draw at such dates. But let a branch bank be
established, and we shall see the private bankers
one and all declining to draw for the public
money. They can no longer have a motive in
submitting to any sacrifice of their interests.
The branch bank must then draw for the public
money, and demanding, as it will, of the other
banks either gold or Bank of England paper in.
payment of their respective notes, it necessarily
tbllows that in effect all payments to the customs
and excise will be in gold or in Bank of Eng-
land notes. I ask, will the private banks not be
obliged to charge a small commission on sums
advanced for such purpoSes ? How otherwise
are they to be compensated for large advances in
gold or Bank of England notes—a description
of currency which they can only procure from
London, subject to both expellee and risk ? Let
our merchants and manufacturers who are in the
habit of paying large sums to the public boards
look to this ; let them consider what even a very
small commission on the amount of monies ad-
vanced them for such payments its the course of
a year may amount to ; and then say whether
the introduction of a branch of the Bank of
England here is likely to be attended with an
augmentation of their profits
But here may some friend of the branch bank
intimate, that gold or Bank of England note
will be obtainable at the branch bank without
any charge in the shape of commission. I ad-
mit the fact. But what must be the securities
on which the tied up and timorous agrnts of
the bank will consider themselves justified in
giving out gold or Bank of' England netes
Bills which, however good they may he, must
be sent in by persons previously approved of by
the Bank Directors, and which in no case will be
taken with less than two responsible games to
them. Now I, who am a manufactaer, and
subject to the excise—who have my customers
in London or some other distant part of the
kingdom, and can only receive p4ment in bills
which I must draw upon them—am reduced, as
often as I have money to pay to the excise, to a
strait of this kind. I must either beforehand
send my bills for acceptance, and thus subject
myself both to expense and inconvenience, or• I'
must submit to the payment of that commission
which the Newcastle bankers, in discounting for
payments to the excise, find it necessary to im-
pose. Whether, therefore, in flame, I apply to
a Newcastle banker or to the branch bank for
discounts to meet such part of try payments, it
is quite clear that, from the conflicting interests
of the rival establishments, I must be a sutferer.
Manufacturers, ye who have large sums to pay
to the crown, look to yourselves !

The projected branch will not however be
more injurious to a large class of our manufac-
turers, than to the great body of the coal-owners,
and therefore I should say it equally behoves the
coal-owners to take into consideration the best
means of averting a measure so generally ob-
noxious. Let the Bank of England but once
obtain a footing here, and the coal-owners need
trouble themselves no further about any regula-
tion of their vends. Coals must be raised, or
the concerns must be laid in. There is no such
thing as going " on tick" with the Bank of Eng-
land ; and the resources of the private bankers
will be found to have their limits. My firm
of the Bank of England in Newcastle will be a
conviction is, that the establishment of branch
death-blow to the coal trade of this district. It
requires no conjuror to point out " the why and
wherefore." But I leave the coal-owners them-
these hints. Apathy must
be their ruin. selves tofollo w out

The
Directors
tt their .aibe iory above
objectusslgn i li'sg either profit
any
m.
for the proposed establishment. Wt must.
rtl
sup-
pose, however,
to the bank, or accommodation to the public.
If profit to the bank--I think it must be evident
to all that the experiment will end in disappoint-
ment ; the expellees
of the establishment must
eat up every shilling of
profit. If public ac-
commodation is the object—then I say that the
.ear of the Directors has been on
abused.
They must have had impressed upcin their minds
an idea that the established banks are insufficient
for the support and extension of our commerce ;
exists. Who the worthy parties are who (have
idea for which ROt the slightest foundation
had so much influence with the hank, we may
by and by know ; but in the meanwhile no per-
son I think can doubt that the measure in ques-
tion savours strongly of a job. Job, do I say ?
Why even the fitting up of the hank premises
must be a job, or why send workmen from Lon-
don for the purpose ? Have we not in New-
castle, bricklayers, joiners, and other handicrafts,
capable of converting a few rooms and cellars of
a house to the purposes of a bank ? But the
yen- pens and ink, I understand,.. will :be sent