[02 
MONEY 
year should become the legal maximum for the follow- 
ing year.” The Government, Mr. Austen Chamber- 
lain being Chancellor of the Exchequer, forthwith 
adopted the recommendation, and the Lords of the 
Treasury issued a scrap of paper which I will give 
in full, as it is one of the most important documents 
in the monetary history of the world. 
“TREASURY MINUTE, 
Dated the 15th December, 1919. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer draws the atten- 
tion of the Board to paragraph 8 of the Final Report 
of the Committee on Currency and Foreign Exchanges 
after the War, which recommends the imposition 
of a maximum limit on the issue of Currency Notes 
under the Currency and Bank Notes Act, 1914. 
The Chancellor proposes to the Board that steps 
shall be taken to give effect to the recommendation 
that the actual maximum fiduciary circulation of 
Currency Notes in any year shall be the fixed maximum 
for the following year. 
The maximum fiduciary circulation during the 
expired portion of the current calendar year has 
been £320,608,298 10s. and the Chancellor accordingly 
proposes that directions shall now be given to the 
Bank of England restricting them from issuing Cur- 
rency Notes during the 12 months commencing the 
1st January, 1920, in excess of a total of £320,600,000, 
except against gold or Bank of England Notes, and 
from issuing in the calendar year commencing 
Ist January in any year henceforward notes in excess 
of the actual maximum fiduciary circulation of the 
preceding 12 months. 
My Lords concur.