Middlemen in English Business 381 



raising a Credit on their own dead Stock, . . . increase their 

 Trades until they [got] a good Market."^ It was held that credit 

 to three or four times the value of the goods deposited might be had 

 in this manner by successive deposits. The "Bank" failed in 1683. 



It was also frequent for merchants about 1670 to enter into partner- 

 ships among themselves and give joint bonds for security to all persons 

 who offered to deposit money with them.^ With these deposits they 

 ventured in all sorts of undertakings. The above-cited Thompson, 

 for example, dealt in wine and silk, was an interloper in the India 

 trade, traded to Russia, and ventured in mines, Irish manufactures, 

 and international exchange.^ This firm failed in 1675. The business 

 world had learned a lesson. The charter of the Bank of England 

 prohibited it from trading directly or indirectly.'* To allow the bank 

 to merchandize would not only lessen the stability of the bank, but 

 permit it to monopolize the trade in what commodities it pleased.^ 

 It was, however, authorized to make advances on the security of 

 merchandise lodged with it or pledged to it by written documents." 

 This part of the business, it was thought, would furnish a principal 

 source of profit. 



The Bank of England was founded in 1694 primarily as a revenue 

 measure'' to sustain the government of the Revolution in its foreign 

 wars. It was a Whig institution.^ Its foundation was opposed by 

 the goldsmiths and other private bankers, by the landed interests, 

 and by those jealous of the new king and the purse; and was sup- 

 ported by the Whigs and the commercial interests. Prominent 

 merchants like Godfrey and Herne^ were zealous supporters of Pat- 

 terson's new system of banking. Forty merchants subscribed five- 

 twelfths of the loan which formed the corporate fund.^" The national 

 ad\'antages, advertised as about to accrue from the bank, included 

 the revival and expansion of public credit, the extension of the circu- 

 lation, and the improvement of commerce.^' 



1 "Bank-Credits," 6. 

 - "Case of Richard Thompson," 3. 

 3 Ibid., 3-4. 



' H. M., England's Glory, 90, 93; 5 W. & M., Cap. 20, Sees. 27-8. 

 ^ ''Remarks upon the Bank," 18. 

 « .S W. &. M., Cap. 20, Sec. 28. 

 • 5 W. &. M., Cap. 20. 



»* Rogers, Ec. Int., 214-15; Macaulay, IV, 454-5. 

 " "London Directory," Editor's Introduction, IX. 

 1" Lawson, 40. 

 " Macpherson, .\nnals, III, 660. 



