268 A. D. 1793. 



mediate failure of many others of good credit and fortune connedled 

 with them. 



Mr. Gilbert Innes, a diredor of the royal bank of Scotland, inform- 

 ed the committee, that the two chartered banks in Scotland could not 

 much longer continue to give the neceflary fupport to mercantile and 

 manufadluring houfes, anc| to the country banks, and that many houfes, 

 undoubtedly good, muft fail, if not immediately aflifted : that a late 

 coniiderable failure, it was feared, would ultimately involve manufadur- 

 ers employing 700 or 800 people ; and many work-people muft have 

 already been thrown out of employment, had not the royal bank given 

 liberal afhftance to their employers. Mr. Innes thought, the diftreffes 

 proceeded, not fo much from any falling off of the demand in the ufual 

 markets for goods, as from the prefent difficulty of difcounting the long 

 bills ufually given in London to the manufadturers in payment for their 

 goods : and he believed, the country banks had contracted their ad- 

 vances and difcounts, but that the royal bank had in this emergency 

 enlarged the afliftance given by them to the country. The later part 

 of Mr. Innes's evidence was confirmed to the committee by Mr. Mac- 

 dowall, a m.ember of the houfe, juft arrived from Glafgow, who faid, 

 that the Glafgow, Pafley, and Greenock, banks were fo much alarmed 

 by the fituation of their affairs, and by their notes pouring in upon them 

 for gold, that they fcarcely difcounted any bills : that the manufacturers 

 had large flocks of goods lying in Glafgow and London, which they 

 could not fell, but at ruinous prices, and they had difcharged great 

 numbers of their workmen. He ftated the numbers ufually employed 

 by the manufadurers of Glafgow and Pafley to be 160,000 men, wo- 

 men, and children ; and he declared, that any relief, to be effedual, 

 muft be immediate. 



The committee concluded their report by faying, that, if the diftrefs 

 were brought on by rafli, or unwarrantable, fpeculations, or confined to 

 houfes of doubtful credit, they fhould not think inch cafes deferving of 

 parliamentary interpofitlon ; but that the confideration of the real re- 

 fponfibility of the fufferers fully juftified the meafure of furnifhing a 

 temporary medium of circulation, authorized and fecured by parlia- 

 ment, which would afford ' means to individuals to render their own 

 * exertions ultimately effedual, without at the fame time giving fuch a 

 ' degree of facility to their tranfadions, as might lead to a relaxation 

 ' or fufpenfion of thole exertions ;' would replace the quantity of cur- 

 rency fuddenly withdrav/n from the circulation ; would foon put in 

 motion large fums of money now locked up in confequence of the gen- 

 eral apprehenfion ; and thereby produce beneficial efteds vaftly be\ond 

 the aniount of the fum to be advanced, which, they were of opinion, 

 fliould be /^5,ooo,ooo. 



May 8'" — In compliance with the recommendation of me committee^ 



