CHAPTER VII
THE CRISIS
No trace was found of any reply or acknowledgment by the Privy Council. Presumably they were satisfied with the answer submitted by the States.
But not so the opponents.
In addition to the Old Bank already mentioned, another Bank, the Commercial Bank, had been started in 1830. Both of these appear to have issued notes at their own discretion. Consequently the Island seems to have been flooded with paper money, and an awkward situation had arisen. The Commercial Bank claimed an equal right with the Old Bank and even with the States to issue notes. The Finance Committee, it was stated, had refused to confer with the Commercial Bank. So long as the Banks had a right to issue notes they appear to have had it in their power to put pressure on the States. For they could thus put into circulation a currency beyond that required for the internal needs of the Island.
Daniel de Lisle Brock summoned the States to consider the matter, evidently with the intention of obtaining an injunction against the issue of notes by the Banks.
His message to the States Meeting, held 21st September, 1836, is very spirited and defends the rights of the States as against private individuals, as will be seen from the following lengthy quotation.
"If there is one incontestable principle it is that all matters relating to the current coin of any country have their source in the supreme prerogative, and that no one has the right to arrogate to himself the power of circulating a private coinage on which he imprints for his own profit an arbitrary value. If this is true for metal coins still more so is it for paper money which in itself has no value whatever.