A. No, never.
Q. The tradition and the reputation of the Bank of France make it important that it should hold a larger reserve than any other bank in the world?
A. It is true that France keeps locked up in its bank a proportionately larger amount of specie than any other country, but this policy is not without important compensations. Suppose the French public, changing its mind, should reduce by one-half its monetary reserve of which the bank is the guardian. It would gain thereafter the interest on perhaps two milliards of francs released and which would have become productive—that is to say, a saving of from 80 to 100 millions of francs per year at the maximum—but if one reflects that it would lose the advantage of the reduced rates of discount which the extent and character of our reserves enable us to maintain and from which all French production profits; that it would lose, in addition, the sentiment of absolute security, of complete financial independence, which every crisis has strengthened, one would be less tempted to conclude—with certain critics—that the policy of maintaining heavy reserves, the natural expression of the country's instincts, is an unwise policy from an economic and practical standpoint.
Q. You have, I believe, no requirement of law by which the Bank of France is obliged to purchase gold at a certain fixed price?
A. The bank buys gold according to the tariff of the Mint, but it is not obliged to do so. Private individuals, instead of having their money coined for themselves, find it more advantageous to sell their ingots to the bank, which has them coined when needed.
The Crédit Lyonnais
INTERVIEWS WITH BARON BRINCARD, ADMINISTRATEUR DÉLÉGUÉ, AND OTHER OFFICIALS OF THE CRÉDIT LYONNAIS[178]
Q. What is the date of the organisation of the Crédit Lyonnais?
A. July 6, 1863.
Q. Under what law was it organised?