GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

AND THE BANQUE DE FRANCE 53
In other words, in a circulation of £419,088,945 the
compulsory gold-cover was only £159,088,945. This
came up to about 38 p.c. And, of course, should it be
necessary to issue more .. fiduciary notes," as is quite
possible under the Act, the proportion of gold-cover can
only become less. In any case, whatever be the theoretical
principle and however conservative or traditional the
British legislation might appear to be, the pressure of
economic circumstances,-the school of monetary
experience,-has tended to bring about a pragmatic
affinity between the Reichsbank and the Bank of F ngland
in Realpolitik,.
The Gold-deck,ung introduced by the Act of 1924 has
indeed introduced the principle of compulsory gold reserve.
The amount of notes thus covered by gold is also
very high. But still the deviation from the British system
is as great in the new Reichsbank as in the old. The gold
reserve plays but a secondary role in the German institution
from the standpoint of bank-technique. The British Act
of 1928 continues perhaps to be almost as rigid in this
regard as was the Act of 1844 whereas the elasticity introduced
in Germany by the Act of 1875 pervades the
legislation that has brought the new Reichsbank into being.
The French Practice in N'oteBank,ing (1800-le48)'
If, the German note-legislation of 1924 as of 1875
is quite liberal compared with the British (1844, 1928),
the ~entury-old F rencl~ legisl-ation would cor.:sider even
9 Courcelle·Seneuil and LieBBe: Les Operations de Banque (Paris.
1922). pp. 235·257; Kaufmann and Sacker: La Banque en France
(Paris. 1914).