The Bank, although a year or two after its foundation its utility was fully recognised by merchants, did not command complete confidence for many years. Pamphlets were written against it. They were answered in 1707 by Nathaniel Tench, a merchant. The defence is instructive. Maitland sums it up:—
“The chief purpose of this defence was to vindicate a corporation, and the management thereof; not so much from crimes they had already been guilty of in the experiment of eleven or twelve years, as the fear of what they might do hereafter.”
The charter of the Bank was renewed in 1697 to 1711; in 1708 to 1733; in 1712 to 1743; in 1742 to 1765; in 1763 to 1786; in 1781 to 1812; and so on. There have been times of tightness. In 1697 the Bank was forced to suspend partially payment in coin, giving 10 per cent once a fortnight, and afterwards at the rate of 3 per cent once in three months. In 1720 it escaped the disaster of the South Sea Bubble. In 1745, when London was thrown into a panic by the approach of the Pretender, there was a run upon the Bank. This was staved off by paying slowly in silver. In the year 1797, by an order in Council, last payments were suspended. These events, however, belong to the after history of the Bank.
The foundation of the Bank of England brought about a complete revolution in the relations of Crown and City. We have seen that hitherto the City was called the King’s Chamber; when the King wanted money he sent to the City for a loan; sometimes he asked more than the City could lend; generally the City readily conceded the loan.
In a note, Sharpe calls attention to the absurdity of representing the Chancellor of the Exchequer going about, hat in hand, borrowing £100 of this hosier and £100 from that ironmonger:—
“The mode of procedure was nearly always the same. The lords of the treasury would appear some morning before the Common Council, and after a few words of explanation as to the necessities of the time, would ask for a loan, offering in most cases undeniable security. Supposing that the Council agreed to raise the required loan, which it nearly always did, the mayor for the time being was usually instructed to issue his precept to the aldermen to collect subscriptions within their several wards, whilst other precepts were (in later times at least) sent to the master of wardens of the livery companies to do the same among the members of their companies. There were times, also, when the companies were called upon to subscribe in proportion to their assessment for supplying the City with corn in times of distress” (London and the Kingdom, vol. ii. pp. 586, 587).
The last loan ever asked by the King of the City was that asked by William the Third in 1697 to pay off his navy after the Peace of Utrecht. Instead of going to the City the King went to the Bank, but not then without the authority of Parliament. The City was no longer to be the Treasurer—or the Pawnbroker—of the King and the nation. This event, though the citizens did not apprehend its full meaning for many years, deprived London of that special power which had made her from the Norman Conquest alternately the object of the Sovereign’s affections or of his hatred. Henceforth it mattered nothing to London whether the King loved or hated her. The power of the City was now exercised legitimately by her representatives in the House of Commons.
CHAPTER VII
THE IRISH ESTATES
The following history of the Irish estates is taken from London and Londonderry, published in Belfast (1890) by Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co.