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An excerpt from the beginning of "The Bank of England and the State":

AN enquiry into the relations subsisting between the State and the Bank of England is a difficult subject for a short address, or even for a short essay. These relations can be described in a very few words; but to enter on them fully, and to treat them from their historical and economic aspects, would occupy many volumes. Indeed, the history of the Bank of England remains yet to be written. As Mr. Stephens' contribution to the bibliography of the Bank of England shows, there is already an extensive literature on the subject, but no one comprehensive work appears to exist.


Curiously enough, the most recent and most complete history of the Bank of England is by a Greek professor, M. Andréadès, published in French in 1904. Another foreign work by Dr. Phillippovich treats specially of the relations between the Government and the Bank; and both works would be well worth translating, as they are full of patient research and ample references to various authorities, so that they are extremely valuable guides to further study. But they are written from the point of view of the foreign student rather than that of the historian and economist who is a thorough master of his subject in every aspect. Their information is second-hand, as it were, and, in consequence, not invariably quite reliable. For the best available information we have now to look to a great variety of sources, and, amongst the most valuable, are the Reports issued by various Select Committees who have from time to time reported to Parliament on the Bank Acts.

A complete history of the Bank would be really a history of the nation in its commercial development. It would have to include the history of the National Debt, the scientific treatment of all questions of currency, the history of private and joint-stock banking, and their functions as regards currency; for the questions of currency and banking, especially as banking has developed in the United Kingdom, are so closely connected as to be quite inseparable. The history of foreign State Banks would also have to be considered, in order to obtain a correct view of our own system.

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An excerpt from the beginning of "Foreign Trade and the Money Market":

IN bringing the subject of Foreign Trade and the Money Market before the Institute of Bankers at the present juncture, I am fully conscious of the responsibility such a course involves. For it is quite impossible to separate this subject from the great question which is now agitating the country. It is not, however, my object tonight to go fully into the fiscal problem; and even if I felt competent to do so time would not admit of it; neither can I pretend to be deeply versed in all the doctrines of political economy, either old or new, but there is one thing which experience has taught me, and that is that there are certain economic laws which act with inexorable force, like any of the laws of nature; their action is sometimes delayed, sometimes obscured by other factors which, for the time being, may be more immediately effective, but ultimately these laws do make themselves felt; they govern the action of individuals, although they may be unconscious of the fact, and it behoves us to study these laws closely when endeavouring to forecast the developments of the future. Not being, then, prepared to fully discuss either the fiscal question or other problems of political economy, what can be my claim for addressing you to-night 1 It is simply this, I want a talk with you, as a man of business with men of business. We may be called upon, no one knows when, to give our votes on this question, one of the gravest, most momentous, and most difficult on which the electors of the United Kingdom have had to decide for many generations. And on us men of business a very grave responsibility falls, for we surely ought to be the guides of public opinion in such a matter. That brings me to my first difficulty, viz., the absolute lack of preparation from which the average busy man must inevitably be suffering.

A question is suddenly brought before us for decision, which, rightly or wrongly, may involve a complete reversal of all the traditions under which the last two generations have been brought up. I hold that we should judge it entirely on its own merits; we must, as far as we can, rid ourselves of anything like prejudice or preconceived ideas, or submission of our own judgment to that of others with whom on questions of politics we may have been associated.
That, I think, is the plain duty of every man of business; but, in order to form such an independent opinion, in order to rely on our own judgment and not on that of others...