[02

MONEY

year should become the legal maximum for the following
 year.” The Government, Mr. Austen Chamberlain
 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 attention
 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 Currency
 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.