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 in any way restricted by law and was only controlled by the effect that it had, directly and indirectly, on the proportion between its Reserve and liabilities and on foreign rates of exchange, and consequently upon foreign demands for gold. During the war these controls no longer had any but a sentimental effect. It is true that the gold standard was in law maintained; the Treasury note was convertible into gold on demand at the Bank of England, the convertibility of the Bank of England note into gold had not been in any way modified by the Currency and Bank Notes Act of 1914, and the right to export gold was not, in law, taken away. Ostensibly and on paper, anybody who had a claim on England could still turn that claim into gold and take the gold away without question. And these facts were of some use for propaganda purposes when put before neutral countries as an example of England's overwhelming financial strength, in that she had been able to maintain convertibility and her gold standard, as compared with the action of Germany, which immediately on the outbreak of war relieved the Reichsbank of the duty of meeting its notes in gold.

In fact this was all "eyewash"; the British public was appealed to on patriotic grounds not