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BANK OF ENGLAND ACCOUNTS 13 June 1820 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence 1815-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


BANK OF ENGLAND ACCOUNTS
13 June 1820

Mr. Grenfell moved for a number of accounts relating to the Bank and said that, the principles which he had so strenuously contended for having been adopted, ‘he trusted the warfare between the Bank of England and himself was over.’ He referred again to the large profits which the Bank had made from the public balances in their hands; they had now been reduced, but a further saving of 100,000l. might be effected on the charge for the management of the public debt by the Bank. Mr. Pearse, a Bank director, defended the Bank.

Mr. Ricardo conceived, that if it were true, as had been stated, that the Bank had made no larger profits in consequence of its connexion with government, and its retaining these balances than any private concern which might have held them would have made, it must have managed its own affairs very badly. The hon. director had mentioned, as one of the great advantages which had accrued to the public from the acts of the Bank, the lending of a sum of money, without interest, to the government. But the thing was differently represented by the court of directors at the time. The Bank was then in this situation:—it had been allowed to increase the amount of its capital, instead of dividing a larger amount of profits among the proprietors—that is, instead of making a larger dividend it had been permitted to add to its capital: and the understanding was, that the loan of 3,000,000l., upon which no interest was to become due, was a boon to the public in return for that permission. At some former periods, the remuneration to the Bank must have been enormous, or it was now very considerably underpaid. But his own opinion upon the charge of management was, that the balances in question were now so small, that it was hardly necessary to have brought the subject before the House.

The papers were ordered to be printed.