CREDIT AND CRISES 693 
and they made repeated representations to Pitt to reduce his AD. 1778 
demands. Their remonstrances were ineffective, and they ’ 
did not perhaps show as much firmness as might have been 
desirable in the face of the continued drain of gold. They 
did however contract their issues to commercial men to such 
an extent as to cause great complaint in the City?!, while 
Pitt continued to press for further advances. He had more so persist- 
than once promised the Directors to make payments which oy 
would reduce the advances on Treasury Bills to £500,000, 
but in June 1796, the debt amounted to £1,232,649, and he 
succeeded in obtaining £800,000 in the July, and a similar 
sum in the August, of that year®, The Bank was perfectly 
solvent?, and might have succeeded in weathering the storm, 
increased state; the advanced price of labour, and of all the necessaries of life, 
and almost every kind of commodity. Added to all these circumstances, the 
operations and expences of the War may be supposed to require a greater 
quantity of circulating medium for internal as well as for external purposes.” 
Third Report, in Reports, x1. p. 123. 
1 “It appears, on the other hand, to have been the opinion of persons engaged 
in commercial and pecuniary transactions, that the diminution of Bank notes 
since December 1795, so far from tending to secure the Bank from the danger of 
6 drain of Cash, by contracting their engagements within a narrower compass, has 
in effect contributed to the embarrassment which they have lately experienced, by 
reducing the requisite means of circulation, diminishing the general accommo- 
dation by way of discount, and thus occasioning a more pressing demand for 
specie, for which the Bank itself is the readiest as well as the ultimate source 
of supply. 
“There appears to Your Committee good reason to apprehend, that the country 
Bank notes in circulation have been reduced one-third from the time of the 
difficulties in 1793 to December 1796, and that they have since that period suffered 
8 still further diminution; and from hence has been inferred the necessity of 
providing from the Bank an adequate supply of their notes to compensate for this 
chasm in the circulation of the country. 
“Your Committee conceive it may be thought important to state, that the 
amount of the Cash and Bullion in the Bank, during a great part of the year 1782, 
and a very considerable part of the year 1784, was below the amount at which it 
stood in any part of the year 1796; and that, during the whole of 1783, the 
amount was lower, and during some parts of that year was considerably lower 
than it was on the 26th of February last; and that the Bank did not at those 
periods lessen the amount of their discounts or notes, and the circulation of the 
country suffered no interruption.” Third Report, in Reports, x1. p. 123. 
2 Macleod, 1. 523. 
¢ The Bank was perfectly solvent at the time of the suspension. “ Your Committee 
find, upon such examination, that the total Amount of Outstanding Demands on 
the Bank, on the 25th day of February last (to which day the Accounts could be 
completely made up) was £183,770,390; and that the total Amount of the Funds for 
discharging those Demands (not including the permanent Debt due from Govern- 
ment of £11,686,800, which bears an interest of Three per Cent.) was on the same