New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-11-06

leading mir ds Of Great Britain and OF this county
interested in questions Of politics and political
economy have taken an earnest part. The subje't
has been banded in pamphlets, in reviews, in news
papers. Ithas year after year come up for Par
lame. tary ard Congressional debate. 1t has been
| passed over 10 Committees before whom bankers
AID merchants have been called TO testify. II has
been discussed In counting rooms and bank psrors;
it has formed The subject OF silent meditation and
deep study, no lees than Of stump speeches and
| impsssioDed orstoy. Men Of business and poiiti-
clans, theorists and practical men, have done their
beet and contributed the utmost effort Of their IN
eenuity to mater the subject. But, with all this
labor and pains, unanimity Of opinion, whether as
to the theory of the currency and is relations to
trade OF a. to practical methods for its regulation
most advantageous to the public, is very far from
! having been Jet arrived at.
This period of fifty years has been not merely
period Of discussion. 1t has been also period Of
experiment. During the co1rse of it, Great Brit
ain has had not less than three distinct systems for
| tie regulation of its currency. The first ten or
twelve years Of this period Of discussion and ex.
pertinent belong to that era Of inconvertibe bank
paper which commenced with the suspension Of
specie payments by the Bank of England in 1897,
and which continued in The whole for about twenty
Jesrs-one half of that period being within the
half century to which We have above referred as
constituting the special era of currency discussions
For the first ten years, this system Of inconVertibe
payer money had gore on without attracting any
particular attention. In spite Of the expensive War
in which Great Britain had been engaged, during
almost the whole of that period trade had been
very prosperous in fact, it had been one OF the
come quences of that war to give to Great Britain
and the United States (the liens share of course
falling to herr monopoly Of the ocean commerce
Of the world. But Bonsparte's famous Contnen-
tai System, which aimed at the destruction of Eng
lar by the curtament Of her trade, gave serious
check to British commercial prosperity. This
check produced commercial derangements and
those arrangements led to the famous Bullion
Committee of 1911, and originated those
discussions on the currency which have since been
renewed at every season Of commercial pressure
and embarrassment, which unhappily have been
but too frequent. The report of that Committee
and the ground which they took against inconverti
bic paper, though at first very cooly received, led
ultimately, after tho restoration Of peace, to the
reastablshment Of specie pay ments, inaugurated by
Peels bill of 1919, and carried completely into
effect in 1923.
For the next twenty years, Great Britain had
bank note currency, which the banks issuing it
were required to redeem on presentation. This
liability to redeem their notes, together With the
prohibition Except in Scetland) Of all notes less
than five pounds, was the only restraint put upon
bank issues. In 1874, By his famous Bank Charter
act, Sir Robert Peel then Prime Minister intro
duced third system, which il that still in force.
By this system the issues Of the private and joint
stock banks are limited to fixed sum-sbout eight
millions of pounds sterling, the average of their
issues for short period preceding the passage Of
that act This privilege of issuing notes for country
circulation is also made monopoly, being confined
to the banks in existence at the time of the passage
of the act all private or joint stock banks estab
lished since that period being forbidden to issue
notes. Nor are these country notes required to be
redeemed in gold. Bank Of Epgland notes acs
made q legal tender for the payment of all debts
except those due from the Bank of England itself.
Specie payments are thus limited TO those over the
counter of the bank. That bank, by the new sys-
TEN, is divided, in fact into two banks-one eK-
cusyely bank of discount and deposit, the other
exclusively q bank of issue. This bank Of issue 10
obliged to give its notes for all deposits Of specie
made with it, II 10 also authorized to issue, for
the use Of the discount department, notes to an
amount-at the utmost-of fourteen millions of
pounds sterling, Of which the basis is not specie on
hand but the general credit of the bank, and, in
particular, Government stocks to that amount, |
which form the capital Of the bank. 1t thus aP- |
pears that the bank note circulation Of England 10
limited 20 that it cannot exceed the specie on hand
more than about hundred million OF dollars. In |
practice it does not come up to that amount, be-
cause it is part of the plan that the Bank OF
England shall always have on hand certain
reserve of notes, which can be used as SO
much money to. meet any emergency or
relieve any sudden mercantile pres
sure that may arise. This scheme seems TO be
based on the idea that the domestic trade OF En- |
elard requires and will absorb at least hundred
millions of bank paper, as to which it il not neces'
,ary to have any specie means Of redemption I'M
uedistely at hand. The specie In the bank Is
intended not as . support to this minimum circulA-
ton. but a. q means of meeting any dimnution |
which may take place in the demand for bank
paper bey ond that limit, and especially Of meeting
ouch balances a. may arise with other countries,
and which il ID necessary to settle in cash. Inc
means relied upon by the Bank Of England to check |
the withdrawal of its specie is not, as with rs,
.:.. -sk,..l of 6;scounts but an Increase IN the