

INTRODUCTORY. 39 



bank a. distinct monopoly of joint stock banking, and consti- 

 tuted that remarkable institution, which has had so singular 

 and so honourable a career in the annals of finance. The 

 nature and plan of this undertaking will be briefly commented 

 on when I deal with the question of the currency 1 . 



It is clear however that until Parliament had claimed to 

 regulate trade and supersede royal charters, or at least to 

 confer powers by Acts which were more substantial than any 

 royal charter could grant, and till this right was recognised 

 and acknowledged by the executive, it would not have been 

 possible for a joint stock bank to be founded, much less that 

 it should be gifted with a monopoly. For the English system 

 of banking under the form of goldsmiths' notes had already 

 been developed, and to those persons the Bank would have 

 been, as it afterwards was, a dangerous rival. But the project 

 of a Bank of England, to be founded on the lines of the famous 

 Bank of Amsterdam, was already in the air. I have found at 

 least two pamphlets during the time of the Protectorate, one 

 addressed to Oliver himself, and one to Oliver and his Par- 

 liament, suggesting the establishment of an institution which, 

 the writers urged, would be so beneficial to the trade and the 

 credit of the country. 



J I have dealt with it at length in nay work, The First Nine Years of the Bank 

 of England.' 1887. 



