At the end of last week the text of the
Currency and Bank Notes Bill was published. The Bill provides for the fusion within six months of the present Treasury notes with the Bank of England notes. In future, that is to say, there will be only Bank of England notes. It is provided that the Treasury is not to lose the profits which it has been receiving on -its note-issue.- Indeed, it will do better than not merely lose these profits, for it is also to get the profits on the Bank notes which have hitherto been -reaped by the Bank itself. This renuncia- tion by the Bank of England is in keeping with the highly liberal policy which the sank has- pursued under its present management. The Bank of England is unques- tionably the proper note-issuing authority, as all the various Committees on currency have acknowledged. But though the Bank of England is the right authority, because it is free from all political pressure, it does not follow that it ought to make money out of the issues. The Bill fixes the. amount of the fiduciary issue of the, Bank for the present at £260,000,000, which is virtually the maximum of the present combined Treasury and Bank issues. We say " for the present " because , it is provided that the £260,000,000 may be exceeded if neces- sary. Here is an attempt to satisfy the complaints of those who think that the supply of currency is likely to prove insufficient. There is indeed nothing in the Bill to put the nation into a currency strait-waistcoat.
* * * *
Previous page
