Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/62

 saving the expense of the interest paid to banks. Our Government printed notes, though to a quite small extent as compared with the thumping figures of war finance, but instead of using them directly for payments, preferred to issue them in response to demands from banks, in exchange for so much credit at the Bank of England, most of which was then lent by the Currency Department, which handled the note issue, to the Exchequer which finally paid it out through the spending departments. By this elaborate machinery and a nicely constructed weekly statement showing a balance sheet with gold, cash at the bank and securities held against the notes, our conscientious officials managed to give an appearance almost approaching respectability to some 300 odd millions of Governmental "shin-plasters."

Thus the ingenuities and elasticities of the Money Market were prostituted for the production of the same result that was achieved by mediaeval monarchs who debased their currency by putting in too much alloy and so making their stock of metal go further. The modern ruler by multiplying banking credits and paper money plays the same confidence trick much more easily and extensively.

So began the dreary and disgusting race