Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/279

 and a sort of European Consortium to be formed by the Central Banks, which would pool their gold. "Let us assume," he says, "for the sake of simplicity that all the gold is deposited in London." It would be simple, but is it likely as long as there is any possibility of war between any of the Powers included in the scheme? "Being thus linked together, with a single pool of gold, the Central Banks would need to pursue a common discount policy. In other words, the expansion and contraction of credit and the regulation of the volume of money and circulation would be effected by alterations in the Bank Rate at a common centre. This would virtually restore the state of affairs which existed before the war, when the London Bank Rate exercised a determining influence over monetary conditions in other European countries." How many French bankers would allow the truth of this last statement?

But as already indicated, the most interesting point in Mr. Lloyd's programme is that having taken the stabilization of the general level of prices in his stride, as secured by the Genoa resolutions, he goes on (page 79) to doubt whether stabilization "can be effectively achieved by manipulating the Bank Rate and co-operation between the Central Banks, so