THE BANK AND THE BULLION 239

An early resumption of the circulation of gold for
internal purposes is not contemplated. The public
has become used to paper money, which is in some
ways more convenient and cheaper; and the luxury
of a gold circulation is one that we can hardly afford
at present. Gold will be kept by the Bank of
England in a central reserve, and all the other banks
should, it is suggested, transfer to it the whole of
their present holdings of the metal. In order to give
the Bank of England a closer control of the bullion
market the Committee thinks it desirable that the
export of gold coin or bullion should, in future, be
subject to the condition that such coin or bullion
had been obtained from the Bank for the purpose.
This measure would give the Bank of England a very
close control of the bullion market, so close that
there is a danger that if this control were too
rigorously exercised, gold that now comes to this
country might be diverted, with a view to more
advantageous sale, to other centres. The amount
of the fiduciary issue is a matter that the Committee
leaves open to be determined after experience of
post-war conditions. They " think that the strin-
gent principles of the Act (of 1844) have often had
the effect of preventing dangerous developments,
and the fact that they have had to be temporarily
suspended on certain rare and exceptional occasions
(and those limited to the earlier years of the Act's
operation, when experience of working the system
was still immature) does not," in their opinion,
invalidate this conclusion. So they propose that the
separation of the Issxie or Banking Departments