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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TENDERS FOR TREASURY BILLS. ( From The Economist, 17 th March, 1877.) - The Works and Life of Walter Bagehot, vol. 9 (Essays from the Economist, the Saturday Review)

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TENDERS FOR TREASURY BILLS. ( From “ The Economist, ” 17 th March, 1877.) - Walter Bagehot, The Works and Life of Walter Bagehot, vol. 9 (Essays from the Economist, the Saturday Review) [1915]

Edition used:

The Works and Life of Walter Bagehot, ed. Mrs. Russell Barrington. The Works in Nine Volumes. The Life in One Volume. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1915). Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works and Life of Walter Bagehot, 10 vols.

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TENDERS FOR TREASURY BILLS.

(FromThe Economist,” 17th March, 1877.)

We understand that the following is to be the first advertisement for Treasury bills under the new Act, which received the Royal assent last night:—

“1. The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty’s Treasury hereby give notice that tenders will be received at the chief cashier’s office of the Bank of England, on Friday, the 23rd inst., at one o’clock, for Treasury bills, to be issued under the Act 40 Vic., cap. 2, to the amount of two millions two hundred thousand pounds (£2,200,000).

“2. The bills will be in amounts of £1,000, £5,000, or £10,000. They will be dated 28th March inst., and will be payable at three or six months after date (at the option of the persons tendering).

“3. The tenders must specify the net amount per cent. which will be given for the amounts applied for.

“4. The bills will be issued and paid at the Bank of England.

“5. The persons whose tenders are accepted will be informed of the same on Saturday, the 24th inst., and payment in full of the amounts of the accepted tenders must be made to the Bank of England, on Wednesday, the 28th inst.

“Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, 15th March, 1877.”

The bills, it will be observed, are made as like bankers’ or mercantile bills as possible. The difference in the tenders is to be practically made in the rate of discount, and the discount will be deducted from the sum advanced to the Government just as it is in the ordinary discount of a mercantile bill. The sum now asked is £2,200,000.

Note.—In Vol. X., page 22, will be found Lord Welby’s account of how Walter Bagehot invented these Treasury bills. “They have not only met ordinary emergency demands,” writes Lord Welby, “but they have stood the strain of a great war.” It may be added that at the present time, September, 1914, while the war is raging between England, her Allies and Germany, Bagehot’s invention is still apparently adequate to meet the great strain of this war.