The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-03-11

was worth 20 per cent more than the cash
The Bank of Amsterdam was only coin
warehouse. that is. it guaranteed payment
IN coin OF a certain weight and ineness of
all bills drawn on Amsterdam After do
ing that ia every case for lS5 years il got
on tile losing side in the French wars, ex
hausted its resources and went TO smash
in 1894. Three years later the Bank of
England suspended specie payments and
did not resume till 1921. The credit Of
originating this wonderful institution has
been, after some discussion, reluctantly
conceded to William Paterson the Scotch
adventurer and enterpriser say "reluc
tantly," because this man was so erratic
and made such disastrous failure of the
Darien colony that Englishmen found IL
nard TO believe chat he designer SEER ia.
nous bank
eE the reasons giypn were ne same as in
Venice, almost thc same ~ tuoae given by
Secretary Chase Tor the national banks
lne war of William and Mary with
France made the bank necessity, and on
the 10Th OF April, 1904, the act creating it
received the royal signature. The capital
was el,200,OOO, which has been increased
nine times until it is nominally el4, 553, 900
credit notes to the full amount of the GA
100000 in government bonds which it
holds, and thereafter notes ('dollar for
dollar'') for its coin So there are about
$I0OO0,000 worth of Bank of England notes,
which are like American national bank
notes as to basis, and varying quantity
on the Holland or "coin warehouse" sys-
tenn. And similarly the two sides of the
bank are run separately-there are, in eff
feet, two great banks under one roof and
one management, and a total collapse of
the discount and deposit side would have
no effect whatever on the credit Of the
notes.
IL IS not true, however, that the notes
have always been thus guarded: for they
have more than once been as low as 20 per
cent. below gold par and once, under ex-
traordlnary circumstances, the stock went
40 per cent below par This was but u few
years after IT'S establishment. The govern
ment increased the capital by FL 900, 900 and
promises of peace coming soon after, the
stock bounded in IA few days from 40 below
to II above par, creating of course wide
spread eommotion and strewing the street
with the 'corpses of the bears"
The Bank of Scotland was established
Immediately after the Bank of England,
and the Scotch have proved in general The
most sagacious bankers; but it was nearly
a century later that the Bank of Ireland
was established There is something de.
cidedly curious in the attitude different
races assume toward banks, but in general
1t may be said that the so called popular
party" in each nation is instinctively op.
posed to banks of issue 1.-THE unknown is
always great" and generally alarming
SO, as the popular element prevails in any
nation, banks Of issue must go out of ex-
istenee.
July IA, 1895, will be celebrated as the BIZ
centennial of the Bank Of Scotland: that of
England is not fixed, save that it is to be
in 1894. A full history of this bank would
be interesting as any romance, especially
the frauds and forgeries. Twice IN its ca
reer it has lost sums amounting to 81 800
COO by ingenious frauds, and at one time it
lo1t Sl0q, 600 year for ten years. At an.
otper time its notes were counterfeited so
successfully that the bank itself redeemed
many of them. John Matheson, Scotch
engraver, confessed TO having put out
100000 worth of these notes just before be
was turned off" at Tyburn.