BANK OF ENGLAND.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 271, 4 November 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

BANK OF ENGLAND.

Some interesting information about the inside working of the greatest financial institution in Great Britain, the Bank of England, was given recently in a lecture by Mr. E Huth Jackson, one of the Bank’s Directors. One of the features of the Baek s note issue is that one rarely sees a dirty note. This is because the Bank never re-issues a note. If one were to go into the Bank and obtain a fi’e-pound note in exchange for five .sovereigns, ami then cross to anol.her counter and change the same note back to gob!, the note would be destroyed by the Bank This expensive system is maintained, not for the .sake of cl- aidin'ss .but to make forgery more diiiicult. I’ne Bank issues nites in dejieminathins of £5, £lO, £2O. £5O, £-.’oo. £5OO, and £lOOO, and. of these the £5 note is in by far the greatest proportion, and th.; proportion is always increasing. The Bank has only 11 branches, two in London and nine in the provinces, but th” staff is very large—--10f!0, of whom 810 are at the head office. Besides these there are 5fK) porta rs and mechanics in the employ of the Bank. The affairs of the Bank are conducted by a Governor and a deputyGovernor, elected from 21 directors, who are chosen from the leading mer- j chant and private banicing firms in the j city, and g< nerally serve for life, 'the i only serious criticism levelled against j the Bank of England to-day is that its | gold reserve is too small. Mr. Jackson I admits that it would be more satisfactory if every note issued by the Bank were backed bv gold, but such a reserve would cost £555,000 .a year in lost intcrest. The cash reserve is now between | 40 and 50 per cent, of all its liabilities. Mr. Jackson pointed out that, cheques, not notes, were the chief circulating nindium of the country. Since 18G8 the value of the cheques that pass daily through the London (Tearing House has risen from £ll .ORI.OOO to £4*,000,000 Tn the same period the average value of tho bank notes in yireulation has only increased from £24,000,000 to £29,000,0)0. despite the enormous increase in the wealth and business transactions of tl.o co intry in the same iieriod.