Note 374 — INDEX

From Hawtrey's Credit and Currency, p. 269. On the values of the notes in terms of gold Prof. Foxwell says: “It is admitted by the severest critics of the bank that there is no substantial ground for complaint as to its conduct during the restriction until 1808–9. There does not seem, indeed, to have been any real depreciation of its paper until that date. The price of £4 per ounce, which figures monotonously for the years 1803–9, was really an arbitrary price, fixed by the bank itself as one at which it would purchase foreign gold.” Preface to Andréadès, p. xvi. Some people seem to doubt that there was no specific depreciation of the inconvertible notes of the Bank of England till 1810. Unfortunately data are not available to give direct evidence of the fact. But circumstantial evidence there is. It is to be remembered that the premium on gold was the only method then known of measuring depreciation and that Horner, Ricardo and others were open enemies of the Bank of England. That being the case, it does not seem probable that Horner would have waited to introduce his Resolution in the House of Commons till 1810 if the bank notes had shown signs of specific depreciation before that time.