A Single Bank of Issue. 
375 
and a million and a quarter added making it 91,250,000 francs. 
Not only did the revolution involve the bank in difficulties, com¬ 
pelling a suspension of specie payments until 1850, but the 
smaller discount establishments which had grown up as appar¬ 
ently necessary links between the informal demands of trade and 
the strictly ruled Bank of France, were entirely swept away. The 
distress was so great that the government advanced funds to 
aid in establishing “Comptoirs d’Escompte." In 1852 the Cre¬ 
dit Foncier and Credit Mobilier were established. 1 From this 
date on the business of the bank increased so rapidly that in 
1857 the government doubled its capital, requiring, however, the 
investment of 100,000,000 francs by the bank in government 3 
per cent paper. The privileges of the bank were then extended 
to 1897. 
A petition presented in 1865, by a number of manufacturers 
of Lyons and Paris, for an inquiry into the nature and manage¬ 
ment of the Bank of France led to the famous Bank Enquete. The 
result of this examination was entirely to exonerate the bank 
and to record the opinion of a majority of the financiers of Eu¬ 
rope in favor of confining the issue of notes to a single central 
establishment, under private control, but privileged and regu¬ 
lated by law. 2 3 The bank at present enjoys the greatest freedom in 
the matter of regulating discount and extending its issues g withi n 
the maximum limit of four milliards of francs. It is required th at 
1 Authorized in December, 1852. “ Le Credit foncier, qui prete sur les 
terrains, se contente d’un interet modeste et consent a etre rembourse 
du capital lui-meme en une serie de trente annuites. En novembre de 
la meme annee, se fonda le Credit mobilier, qui prete sur des valuers 
mobilieres.” A. Rambaud “ Histoire de la Civilisation Contemporaine en 
France,” 2d ed. Paris, 1888, p. 703. The Comptoir d’Escompte was 
founded in 1848, Credit Lyonais, in 1863, and the Societe Generale, in 
1864, besides numerous private banks. 
** Max Wirth op. cit., p. 187. 
3 “Depuis 1848, la Banque de France a seule la faculte d’emittre des 
billets payables en especes au porteur et a vue: depuis 1857 elle a seule 
le droit d’ elever le taux de ses operations au-dessus de la limite posee 
par la loi de 1807 en matiere d’ interet de 1’argent, et de faire varier les 
conditions de l’escompte suivant la situation du marche.” Wolowski 
in Art. “Debats sur la Banques” in the “Revue des deux Mondes.” Fev. 
1,1865, Tome 55, p. 664. 
