War-time financial problems

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.