The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

THE SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS 701 paper-money circulated freely, showed that it retained its A-D. 7776 value; after all, this only meant that so long as the credit of the Bank was good, its paper-issues were valuable; but it did not prove, as the Directors thought, that the paper retained its original value. They and their supporters were ready to argue that, in so far as there was a marked divergence be- tween the value of gold and the value of a note, this was due, not to a depreciation of the paper, but to an appreciation of gold, brought about by an unusual continental demand, owing to the requirements of the French armies and an in- creased disposition to hoard®. Experience was being gradually collected however; and as it accumulated, the fact became clearer that an over-issue of notes was the real cause of the trouble. There had been an enquiry, in 1804, into the reasons for the extraordinary difference between gold prices and paper prices in Dublin, and for the unfavourable state of the exchanges between Dublin and London?, and good grounds had been shown for believing that the phenomena were due to the greatly increased circulation of notes by the Bank of Ireland®. The monetary conditions, into which the Bullion Committee was appointed to enquire in 1810, were similar in Duned every respect, and that enquiry resulted in an admirable re- state of the port in which the Committee showed that a real depreciation to the of notes had occurred®. It insisted that the Directors should Loli 1 Report from the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion, 1810, or. 2. 3 Report of the Committee on the Circulating Paper, the Specie, and the Current Coin of Ireland, 1804 (reprinted in 1810). Accounts and Papers, 1810, mx. 885. 8 McLeod, Theory and Practice, mm. 18. There was a difference of twelve per cent. in the exchanges at Belfast, where Irish bank-notes did not circulate, and at Dublin, where they did. 4 “Upon a review of all the facts and reasonings which have been submitted to the consideration of Your Committee in the course of their Enquiry, they have formed an Opinion, which they submit to the House :—That there is at present an excess in the paper circulation of this Country, of which the most unequivocal symptom is the very high price of Bullion, and next to that, the low state of the Continental Exchanges; that this excess is to be ascribed to the want of a suffi- cient check and contrdl in the issues of paper from the Bank of England; and originally, to the suspension of cash payments, which removed the natural and true control. For upon a general view of the subject, Your Committee are of opinion, that no safe, certain, and constantly adequate provision against an excess of paper currency, either occasional or permanent, can be found, except in the convertibility of all such paper into specie. Your Committee cannot, therefore,

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The Industrial Revolution

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation