© Roy Davies & Glyn Davies, 1996 & 1999.
Based on the book: A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083 1351 5. (Page numbers in the 3rd edition published in 2002 may be slightly different).
c. 1780-1810 | Rapid spread of country banking in England and Wales |
---|---|
By 1810 the total number of licensed and unlicensed banks is probably over 800.
In most cases their founders have strong ties with particular industries or
trades and the banks meet the need of small workshops, mines etc. for working
capital. Without these banks the Industrial Revolution would have been
strangled in its infancy.
p 286-291 |
|
1787-1817 | Privately-issued tokens become common in Britain |
By the end of the 18th century there is a severe shortage of copper and silver
coins in Britain so that many firms have difficulty in obtaining enough
currency to pay wages. This leads to a growth in payments in kind, use of
foreign coins, and unofficial tokens. The token manufactures greatly expand the
amount of currency available.
p 292-296 |
|
1792-1815 | French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars |
The pressures of war cause many changes in the financial systems of both France
and Britain.
p 297-298,556 |
|
1793-1801 | Britain sends more than £15 million to its allies |
This is to support them in the war against France.
p 297 |
|
c. 1800-1860 | Five hundred fold depreciation of the cowrie in Uganda |
When cowrie shells are first introduced to Uganda at the end of the eighteenth
century two are sufficient to purchase a woman. Thereafter the wholesale
importation of cowries causes inflation with the result that by 1860 one
thousand cowries are needed for such a purchase.
p 35,640 |
|
1800 | The Bank of France is founded |
France gains a national bank over a century after England, Holland and Sweden.
p 556 |
|
1800 | Number of banks in the US reaches 29 |
Their number has increased from just 4 in 1790, despite fears that the Bank of
the United States would enjoy monopoly powers preventing the rise of new banks.
p 473 |
|
1802 | Barings buys 2,220 shares in the Bank of the United States |
The number of British shareholders grows in the years leading up to the date
when the bank's charter is due for renewal.
p 473 |
|
1803 | The Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States |
Napoleon, being short of cash, offers to sell Louisiana to the United States
for 15 million dollars. Two British banks, Barings and Hopes, agree to lend the
money to the US government and, despite the wars, transfer it to Napoleon.
p 346 |
|
1804 | Full-weight Spanish coins are re-issued by the Bank of England |
Matthew Boulton is employed to erase completely the existing design on
full-weight Spanish coins and stamp them as Bank of England Five Shilling
Dollars.
p 294 |
|
1804 | Bank of England issues token silver coins |
These are light-weight, as opposed to full-bodied coins, for 3s. and for 1s.
6d.
p 294 |
|
1806 | President Jefferson suspends the minting of silver coins |
This is because of the tendency of these new coins to disappear from
circulation, as an unintended consequence of the US 1792 Coinage Act.
p 468 |
|
1806 | Bank of Bengal founded |
For hundreds of years before the creation of the first formal, western-style
banks, financial services have been provided in India by castes such as the
Multanis, Marwari and Pathans who provide credit, collect deposits and arrange
trading deals through bills of exchange or hundi. The Bank of Bengal is
the first of the so-called presidential banks to be established during
British rule to supplement the internal money supply of India.
p 620-622 |
|
1809-1831 | Ohio State government issues paper warrants as currency |
Warrants for 5, 10 and 20 dollars are used as currency in Ohio because of the
shortage of coins.
p 468 |
|
1810 | Royal Mint equipped with steam-powered machinery |
Matthew Boulton who was responsible for constructing the Mint's new manufactory
died a year before its completion. Boulton had previously supplied
steam-powered machinery to mints in Russia, Spain, Denmark, Mexico and India.
p 294 |
|
1810 | Start of the savings bank movement in Britain |
Although there had been earlier examples of savings banks in Britain and on the
continent, the Rothwell Savings Bank established by Henry Duncan as a bank for
the poor becomes widely imitated not only in Britain but also France and
Holland.
p 332-333 |
|
1810 | Bullion Report by the House of Commons Select Committee |
The Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the High Price
of Bullion blames the inflation taking place during the Napoleonic Wars on the
creation of an excessive amount of credit, principally by the Bank of England
and recommends that the Bank's notes be made fully convertible after two years,
whether or not the war is over.
p 223,299-303 |
|
1811 | Parliament rejects the proposal to restore convertibility of notes |
The government argues successfully that to restore convertibility would imperil
the British war effort.
p 302 |
|
1811 | Bank of the United States' charter is not renewed |
Public opposition to British shareholders, suspicion that the bank is exceeding
its constitutional powers, and opposition from those who believe that banking
should be controlled by the states not the Federal government, are responsible
for the demise of the bank.
p 473-474 |
|
1812-1814 | War between the United States and Britain |
Inflation takes off in the United States. This is only partly because of the
war. Without the restraining hand of the Bank of the United States there is a
huge increase in the number of banks issuing notes with very little specie
backing. This experience swings opinion in favour of creating a new national
bank.
p 474 |
|
1816-1818 | Prussia abolishes all internal customs |
Other German states, with varying speeds, follow its example prior to the
formation of a full customs union (Zollverein) between nearly all of them in
1834.
p 567 |
|
1816 | Second Bank of the United States founded |
The bank begins the task of restoring the convertibility of paper notes. It
also restrains other banks from making excessive issues of notes.
p 474-476 |
|
1816 | Privy Council recommends establishment of the gold standard |
This proposal is accepted and, in accordance with a related proposal, a new
British one pound coin made of gold, the sovereign, is produced.
p 303 |
|
1817 | Act to suppress tokens passed by the British Parliament |
An earlier bill in 1812 was unsuccessful. The 1817 Act does make certain
exemptions, e.g. tokens issued by Poor Law unions are allowed until 1821 by
which time the supply of official coinage has increased sufficiently to make
tokens redundant.
p 296 |
|
1817-1852 | Bank of France discount rate remains almost unchanged |
During this time it is fixed at 4% except during the revolutionary troubles of
1848.
p 558 |
|
1818-1819 | Various US states levy taxes on the branches of the Second Bank |
The Second Bank of the United States refuses to pay these taxes and wins
its case in the Supreme Court.
p 476-477 |
|
1820 | Last British silver pennies are minted |
This is nearly 1,100 years after the first English silver pennies, though
silver continues to be used for higher value coins for another 100 years.
p 207 |
|
1821 | Restoration of convertibility of Bank of England notes |
This is two years earlier than the target date set by the 1819 Act for the
Resumption of Cash Payments and completes the establishment of the gold
standard in practice as well as in law.
p 303 |
|
1822 | The Société Général founded in Belgium |
The bank plays a vigorous role in Belgium's industrial revolution, the first of
any country on the European mainland.
p 558 |
|
1824 | Parliament rejects decimalization of British currency |
Further proposals made in 1853, 1857 and 1918 are also rejected before the
Halsbury Report of 1963 is accepted and put into effect in 1971.
p 442 |
|
1824 | Illinois declares all branches of the Second Bank illegal |
This decision is overturned by the US Supreme Court.
p 477 |
|
1824 | Clearing system developed by Boston banks |
The Suffolk Bank of Boston, in co-operation with 6 other local banks, begins
the development of a system of clearing inter-bank accounts.
p 476 |
|
1825-1826 | Banking crisis in England |
During the year 60 banks fail. To alleviate the liquidity shortage caused by
the financial panic the Bank of England issues one pound notes and the Royal
Mint steps up the production of sovereigns.
p 306 |
|
1826 | Banking reforms introduced in England and Wales |
The bank crisis is blamed on small, weak country banks issuing too many small
denomination notes. Parliament bans the issue of notes of less than £5 in
England and Wales but not, after protests, in Scotland. Parliament also allows
the creation of new joint-stock banks outside a 65 mile radius of central
London and also permits the Bank of England to set up regional branches.
p 307-308 |
|
1826 | Sir Walter Scott defends small Scottish banknotes |
Under the pseudonym of Malchai Malagrowther, the novelist Sir Walter Scott
writes a series of letters for the Edinburgh Weekly Journal
demonstrating the superiority of the Scottish banking system and the disastrous
consequences that would follow the abolition of small denomination notes.
Because of the protests by Scott and others parliament decides that the ban on
such notes should apply in Scotland.
p 308 |
|
1826 | Death of the last British Exchequer Chamberlain |
Upon his death the Treasury Tallies are abolished in accordance with the Act of
1783. Later the redundant tallies are returned to the House of Commons, an
action that has disastrous consequences in 1834.
p 663 |
|
1828 | Andrew Jackson elected President of the USA |
Jackson has been suspicious of banks ever since he read the history of the
South Sea Bubble.
p 476 |
|
1829 | New York State passes Safety Fund Act |
This tightens up conditions for chartering banks and contains provisions
foreshadowing later developments in deposit insurance.
p 476 |
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