Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

moment it was resolved upon, no human being was consulted as to its effects. They had, indeed, been asked about Mr Ricardo's system; and their answer was not one of the wisest, when they spoke about pay. ing at the Mint price of the day. Mr Baring was the only person who had been asked a question on the subject, and he distinctly stated, that it would not answer the purpose. Ministers must, therefore, not be much surprised, if they found the plan rejected out of doors. If the claim of the Bank were allowed to the extent of L, 10,000,000, not only all indelicacy would be avoided, but the security would be greater; and if Government were to be trusted at all without any guard upon their conduct, there was no occasion for the plan. He should therefore recommend the amendment of his honourable friend, as most likely to conciliate the public mind, and to allay those alarms which had sprung out of the bad management of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and propose, either that the amendment be adopted, or that the House should adjourn the further consideration of this momentous question.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer made a few observations, chiefly in answer to the animadversions of Mr Tierney directed personally to himself; disavowed the distrust in the Bank which had been ascribed to him; and asserted that the object of his Majesty's Government was to return as soon as possible to cash payments; the only question being as to the least inconvenient mode of attaining that great and important object.

After a few observations from Mr Manning, (a Bank Director), Mr Ricardo rose, amidst loud invitations. He said that he was one of those who conceived the resolu

tions calculated to effect their object. From the speech of his honourable friend, and other evidence, he was induced to think that the Bank wanted to resume cash payments, but did not know how to put their wishes in operation. He had heard it declared that the issues of paper had no effect whatever upon the price of bullion. What support ed this assertion, or were not proofs in direct contrariety to it? Now it appeared that the Bank had failed to resume cash payments, year after year, although year after year called upon by that House to do so. It was therefore high time that the matter should be taken out of their hands, and that the House should feel itself called upon to look to the effecting of that measure. He did not think this a question only between the Bank and the Ministers; but more between Ministers and the Bank and the country. He was therefore particularly disposed to concur with his right honourable friend in any measure which might be devised to keep the Ministers also under control. One principle was clear, that those who had the command of the circulating medium of the country had the power of regulating the price of every commodity. This power clearly resided in the hands of the Directors, as controlling the circulating medium, and it was a most formidable one. then, putting the question shortly, for the application of the measure recommended by the Committee, the result was, that by withdrawing a certain quantity of paper from the circulation, we restored the remainder of it to the value of bullion, which was to raise it 2 or 3 per cent. He could not, however, go along with the right honourable gentleman in his statement; for in order to raise the paper currency to the

Why,

value of a metallic one, there must
be a demand for gold over and a-
bove that actually in the market.
As to the plan itself, undoubtedly he
approved of it for would they leave
to the Bank Directors a power of
keeping out all the metals, and ma-
king the currency consist of paper
only? The Bank Directors could
have no real interest in depre-
ciating the currency it was their
interest to raise it to double its va-
lue. They stood in the light of cre-
ditors, not of debtors; they were
the last whom he should have ex-
pected to object to the plan, and he
thought no means so likely to suc-
ceed as those before the House.
The Bank Directors, so long as they
continued to make large advances
to Government, must be liable to
get into a situation of distress. They
might extend their advances so far
as to quadruple the currency of the
country. Their error was, in sup-
posing that the rate of interest would
always point out a proper limit to
their issues; but the rate of interest
had been proved both by Hume and
Adam Smith to depend, not on the
quantity of money, but on the profits
of stock; even though they did not
advance any thing to Government,
it was in their power, by an excess
of discounts, to make the circulation
redundant. The proposed mode of
resuming payments appeared to him
the easiest that could be imagined.
The Bank would be placed under
no restraint at first, nor any sudden
necessity of reducing its issues. An
opportunity would be afforded of
effecting the object in the most
gradual manner; and even when bul-
lion payments should be made at the
Mint price, the inconvenience would
be but inconsiderable. If the Bank
managed discreetly, they might open
in 1820 with a very small issue of
gold: all they had to do was to di-

minish their paper regularly. What
indeed he was afraid of was, that
they would reduce it too rapidly.
If he were to give them advice, he
should counsel them not to buy any
bullion at present, but rather to sell
it, and wait with patience till its
price should fall, as it then soon
would, to the Mint price of L. 3,
17s. 104d. per ounce. He lament-
ed the loss of that part of the ori-
ginal plan, which would compel the
Bank to purchase gold as well as
to pay it on demand. He thought
it might serve to operate as a check
against what might hereafter happen,
that was, against their starving the
circulation. Individuals might in-
deed, by carrying gold to the Mint,
furnish an occasional supply to the
circulation. Mr Mushett, who had
given his evidence with great pre-
cision and ability, stated his opinion,
that with L. 300,000 always in the
Mint for coinage, about L.12,000,000
might be added to the currency with-
in the period of a year. He sup-
posed that this calculation implied,
that the sum of L. 300,000 should be
constantly kept up by successive
quantities, and, besides, a year was a
long time to wait for such a supply, if
it were actually wanted. The Bank
Directors could not possibly have
any desire to thwart the Go-
vernment, and he did not think
therefore that they would have ob-
jected to the adoption of this part
of the plan. With regard to what
had fallen from his right honourable
friend with respect to the graduated
scale of payments, he might refer
him to Mr Thornton's evidence, as
indicative that no serious objection
was entertained against it.
confessed himself to be utterly as-
tonished at the alarm which had
gone forth, because
gone forth, because a reduction,
which was to raise the value of the
paper to a par with gold, (the dif-

He

ference being now only 3 per cent. and the amount of the reduction, therefore, not necessarily exceeding L.1,500,000), was to be brought about in the course of four years. He could only attribute it to the indiscreet conduct of the Bank Directors, and to the remonstrance which they had addressed to Government, and in which they actually sounded the alarm. The honourable gentleman (Mr Manning) had complained of confidence being withdrawn from the Bank; but the House had not withdrawn it on account of their want of probity, but on account of their ignorance of political economy. They had ample time and means of being prepared to resume their payments. But what had been their conduct? They had continued their advances to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in spite of the approaching period when the restriction was to expire. Yet itwould be said that they had done this for the public interest; but the protection of the public interest was not their business; it was that of his Majesty's Ministers. The honourable Director had talked of the accommodation which they had furnished to Government, and the sacrifices they had made at different times for the country at large. Now he gave them no credit whatever for those sacrifices. It was their duty to attend to the business, and promote the interests of the Bank proprietors. He had been much astonished at the small amount of their savings, having previously conceived that it was at least L. 5,000,000. This was now explained; for they had thrown away a million here and a million there, for the purposes, as it appeared, of protecting the public. With regard to reductions in 1796, which the honourable Director had referred to as a sort of warning that the circulation might be hereafter

cramped in the same way, he must observe, that in 1796 the case was extremely different. The price of gold was then below the Mint price, but a panic prevailed, and the Bank was induced to lessen its issues. It had been asked, why should not the poor man with only L. 10 get gold for it if he wished, as well as the rich man? To this, he answered, that they did the same benefit to the poor man by restoring the whole currency to its proper value, and by making L. 1,000 worth what it purported to be, instead of what it now really was, worth only L. 970. Besides, the poor man, if he were very desirous of gold, might carry his L. 10 note to a goldsmith's, and procure, with a very trifling difference, the full proportion of what the Bank itself paid. To revert to the subject of the advances to Government, he must ask why were they made? He could only ascribe it to the strong propensity to the Bank Directors to act as Ministers. If they would give up this anxiety about the State, and attend only to their own interests, things would go on much better. A most fearful and destructive depreciation had at one time taken place, but from that we had recovered, and he was happy to reflect that we had so far retraced our steps. We had nearly got home, and he hoped the right honourable gentleman would lend them his assistance to enable them to reach it in safety. He would venture to state, that in a very few weeks all alarm would be forgotten, and at the end of the year we should all be surprised to reflect that any alarm had ever prevailed at a prospect of a variation of 3 per cent. in the value of the cir culating medium. His own general opinion was, that an unfavourable state of exchange must always proceed from a redundant currency.

If corn were imported and paid for in bullion, it was a proof that bullion was the cheapest commodity. Suppose all the Bank notes to be paid in gold, would not gold become infinitely cheaper? If our paper had been of any intrinsic value, it would, having become cheap from excess, have been exported also. He thought it right here to pay the tribute of his approbation to the late excellent regulations of the Mint. He entirely approved of making gold the standard, and of keeping silver as a token currency. It appeared to him to be a solid improvement in the system of our coinage. Nothing could be clearer than that Government had the power, by limiting the quantity, to regulate the value of the silver.

At this stage of the discussion, a motion for adjournment was put and carried; and on the following day the House having again resolved itself into a Committee on the Bank Report, the adjourned debate was resumed. The first to call the attention of the Speaker was Mr Alderman Heygate, who contended, at great length, against what he conceived the destructive and dangerous tendency of the plan embodied in the resolutions of the right honourable gentleman (Mr Peel,) and which he believed to be founded on a total misconception of the principles by which our currency is, or, at least, according to him, ought to be regulated. The worthy Alderman was followed by Sir H. Parnell, Mr Gurney, (member for Norwich,) Lord Folkestone, Mr Cripps, Mr Marryat, Mr Abercromby, Mr J. Smith, Mr Pearse, Lord Castlereagh, &c.; but as no views either novel or interesting were elicited in the course of the adjourned discussion, which was protracted till a very late hour, and as we have exceeded our

limits by the length to which this. analysis has already extended, it only remains to add, that, after a very brief reply from Mr Peel, the amendments were withdrawn, and the resolutions put and carried without a division.

Soon after this a Bill, founded on the resolutions which he had proposed, and so triumphantly carried, was introduced by Mr Peel, and read a third time and passed on the 14th of June.

On the following day, Lord Lauderdale made a motion for obtaining the opinion of the twelve Judges on the subjects of legal tender and standard of value, and supported his motion in a speech of considerable ingenuity and learning, observing, that he had been induced to call for the opinion of the Judges in consequence of what had passed in the late discussions respecting the Mint regulations, when it had been argued, that, though these regulations occasioned a depreciation of silver to the amount of 93 per cent., it could be attended with no injurious effects, because, from the year 1774 to 1779 it had been declared, in a report of the Privy Council, that silver coin had been depreciated 25 per cent. The noble Earl was answered by Lord Liverpool, and after a brief discussion the question was put and negatived.

On the 16th of June, Mr Peel moved for leave to bring in a bill, in terms of the recommendation of the Secret Committee, to establish farther regulations respecting advances by the Bank of England upon Government securities; and after a few words from Mr Ricardo, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr F. Lewis, and Mr Huskisson, leave was given to bring in the bill accordingly.

On the 18th, the Cash-payments

Bill was read a second time in the Lords, and committed on the 21st, when a lengthened discussion took place, in which the principal speakers were, the Marquis of Lansdown, and the Earl of Liverpool, who approv ed of the bill, and the Earl of Lauderdale who had opposed it in all its stages.

The bill was however read a third time on the 23d, when Lord Holland rose to move an amendment, with respect to the period at which cash payments should commence. He objected to the remote date fixed for the resumption, and thought it extraordinary, after all that had passed on the subject, that in the first session of a new Parliament it should be resolved to continue the restriction on cash payments beyond the 1st of July 1820. He would therefore move to substitute that date for the 1st of July 1823. Though he thus far objected to the mode in which it was proposed to carry the object of the bill into execution, it had nevertheless his approbation. It was with great satisfaction he saw at length fully recognised those principles of finance which had always been maintained by those with whom he aeted. Still, however, he felt for the character of Parliament; and when this measure passed, carrying with it a condemnation of the system which was abandoned, without being accompanied by any censure of that system, or any expression of remorse at the ruinous consequences which had attended it, he could not help doubting whether the public would believe that their Lordships were in earnest with this bill. For this reason he was desirous that the period fixed for the return to cash payments should not be so remote. The amendment he was now to move, if adopted, might render some other alterations

necessary: he would propose to alter another date, that of February to November next, for the commencement of the first step towards the execution of the measure, His wish in moving the amendment which he did not expect to be carried, was that its object should appear in the Journals. It would then be seen that there was one of their Lordships who was desirous that the resumption of cash payments should not be postponed to so long a period as that in the bill. The amendment was then put, and negatived.

The Earl of Lauderdale proposed, that the clause for paying in ounces of gold should be so altered, as to render fractional payments in silver unnecessary. This clause, however, was not altered..

The Earl of Harrowby observed, that the Bank would have a longer time to increase their treasure, if the clause of paying in coin at their option in 1821 had been omitted; but, instead of proposing to leave out the clause altogether, he would propose a modification of it, which would allow the option of paying in bullion or coin after May 1822, instead of 1821, as now in the bill.

The Marquis of Lansdown would have preferred a total removal of the restriction after 1822, as he was averse to the system of allowing the Bank to pay in coin with the one hand, and in bullion with the other. If that term had been fixed upon, he should have preferred in the interval an exclusive payment in bullion. He would not, however, object to the amendment of the noble Earl (Harrowby.)

The Earl of Liverpool thought his noble friend's amendment (the Earl of Harrowby's) would answer all purposes that the bill had in view. Hitherto the gold had come to the

« AnteriorContinuar »