THE  HOLDEN  PLAN	89
RECONSTRUCTED BALANCE-SHEET OF THE BANK,
JANUARY 16, 1918.
Capital	£i4,553,ooo   Gold         .     .    .£58,768,000
Rest	3,363,000   Currency Notes   .  11,015,000
Notes Issued (circulation)    45,3as,ooo      -		£69,783,000
Deposits	163,005,000   Government Secu-
Other Liabilities  ,    .    .	18,000       rities     .    .    . 56,768,000
Other Securities     7>435»ooo
	     64,203,000
Other Securities ....    92,278,000-
£226,264,000	£226,264,00
Ratio of Gold to Notes   .    .	=1297 per cent.
„     ,, Cash Balance to Liabilities •* 33*5     ,,
It need not be said that these proposals have
aroused the liveliest interest. At the Bank Meetings
held since then several chairmen have been asked
by their shareholders to express their views on Sir
Edward's proposed revolution. Sir Felix Schuster
pronounced cautiously in favour of the revision of
the Bank Act, and said that he had advocated it
seventeen years ago. Lord Inchcape, at the National
Provincial Meeting, thought that the matter required
careful consideration. Most of us will agree with
this view. There is certainly much to be said for
a reform of the Weekly Statement of the Bank of
England, giving, it may be added, a good deal more
detail than Sir Edward's revised balance-sheet
affords. But concerning his proposal to reconstruct
our system of note issue on a foreign model, there is
certain to be much difference of opinion. In the
first place, owing to the development of our system
of banking by deposit and cheque rather than by
issue and circulation of notes, the note issue is not
nearly so important a business in normal times in
this country as it is in Germany and France.