| |
| 1856 | 63,000,000 | 585 = 1 to every 5,230 inhabitants. |
| | and capital | |
| | | |
| 1872 | 92,000,000 | 790 = 1 to every 4,250 inhabitants. |
| | including all | |
| | liabilities | |
| | and capital | |
| | | |
| 1906 | 135,042,000 | 1,180 = 1 to every 3,790 inhabitants. |
| | including all | |
| | liabilities | |
| | and capital | |
+------+---------------+----------------------------------------+

Against every note issued in excess of the limit allowed by the acts of
1844-1845, gold has to be held at the offices of the issuing banks in
Scotland and Ireland. The amount of the specie to be thus held was, as
explained by Sir Robert Peel in his speech of the 25th of April 1845, to be
ascertained by the average amount of the note-issue for four weeks
preceding. The object of the holding of this amount of specie by the bank
which issued the notes was designed by Sir Robert Peel to cause the
circulating medium of the country, being partly of notes and partly of
specie, to fluctuate in the same manner as if it had been a metallic
circulation only. The specie held in Scotland and Ireland against the
note-issue is not a special security for the note circulation, but is
placed in the banks there for this purpose. The influence ascribed to the
working of the note circulation in the earlier part of the 19th century
accounts for this legislation, which, as Sir Robert Peel stated in his
speech of the 6th of May 1844, was intended to "ensure the uniform
equivalency of bank notes to coin." It is not applicable to the present
position of the circulating medium of the United Kingdom, which now
consists mainly of a circulation of cheques. This differs absolutely from
what was contemplated by Sir Robert Peel; no attempt is or can be made to
cause such a paper circulation to fluctuate as if it were one of specie
only. One result of the limitation of the power of note-issue to the banks
in Scotland which possessed t