The Shasta courier., 1864-06-11
The Bank of England.

lor of the Kingdom, by William Patterson, IA
Scottish merchant. An act of Parliament
was passed to legalizei it on April 25th 1894
and commissioners were appointed to receive
subscriptions to loan of fl .200, ,000 to the
Government at s per cent, the subscribers
being Incorporated as the Company of the
Bank of England. The career of this Bank
has been very checkered it has welded i'm
mense power, and has been on the whole of
vast advantage to England Its history has
Leen published in a volnme of considerable
size and reads like romance. 1t enjoys
certain privileges, measures the public debt
and pays government sureties. By afording
loans to the government at moderate rates
OF interest 1t has saved the nation immense
sums, and it has been the means of rescuing
1t from pecuniary difficulties on several try
ing occasions. 1t has had its trial, and du-
ring the terrible struggles with Napoleon in
1877, it suspended specie payments by order
of the Privy Council; but in doing so notice
was given that all the notes issued were Sc
cure. This suspension it is said, prevented
the ruin of the Bank, and it continued until
the reaee of 1915, period of eighteen years,
and was not fully resumed until 1928 Du-
ring the Wars with Napoleon, the govern
ment borrowed f500, 900, ,000, and with only
a population of fourteen millions in the two
Kingdoms and four millions in Ireland, the
ANIMAL revenue reaching the enormous sum
of GI5, ,OOO, 900 (about $500, ,000.000l. At
the conclusion of these long wars, the value
of bank paper was l6 per cent. below that of
gold; in two years afterwards it was only
per cent
In 1914, the charter of the Bank of Eng
land was renewed through an act passed un-
der the premiership of Sir Robert Peel, lin
itlng the circulation of its notes to the
amount of gold and bullion in its vaults and
the amount of its securities. Every note is
sued beyond the sum of National securities
must have its representative in an equal
amount of bullion The object of this act
was to prevent the ever varying expansion
and contraction Of issues, but it has failed
to effect this, object. This bank C ntrols
all the others in England, and its notes are
legal tender, except to ITSELF 1t has dis
tinet issue department for its note, separate
from its banking business the issue here
being equal in amount to the government
debt owned by the bank, and the gold and
silver in its possession. Its circulation, is
therefore, always contracted in proportion as
its bullion diminishes; and although this
was held by Sir Robert Peel to be perfect
security against financial troubles, it was
found to be the reverse in the cricis of 1857
when during the month of October, the Privy
Council permitted the act of 1874 to be sus-
pended and an increase of issues were advan-
tageously allowed.
The Bank of England is the greatest in
stitution of the kind in the world The whole
revenue of the government soon fnds its way
into it and is instantly rendered available for
the demands of the State. In all these trans
used; the whole is affected by purely bank
ing arrangements. The government collec
tor at Liverpool may require to transmit fifty
thousand pounds to London, and some pri
vate individual may want to transmit ike !
amount to Liverpool from London on the !
same day through the Bank of England or
some other bank. Both transactions are
carried out by the mere entry in books and
the instructions sent by telegraph or post
The revenue is paid into the Bank of Eng |
land at the rate of over one million pounds /
weekly; and for all the trouble of managing |
the business. the bank receives no other re-
muneration than the use cf the government
balances, which vary from nil, the day after !
the payment of the dividends, until they ac-
cumnlate for another payment; when there |
is not sufficient to pay the government divi-
dend the bank is expected to advance the |
difference, which is paid out of the next ac-
cruing revenue. This bank is one of the |
most convenient, simple and splendid insti-
tutions ever devied for managing the finances
of a great nation; its affairs have usually |
been conducted by men of probity and honor.
The bank circulation of England, Scotland |
and Ireland in 1860 amounted to about forty
million pounds sterling; the bullion amount |
ed to a little over twenty-five million pounds. !
1t has lately been charged against the man
agement of this bank that it frequently pro-
duces great and abrupt changes in the rate
of interest, thereby producing extreme fuc-
tuations in mercantile transactions.