JB_003_394.xml

Title: [24 July 1801 I + Annuity Notes]

Description: 24 July 1801

I +

Annuity Notes

Eden

Reports […?]

4

31

Observations continued. –

“I however admitt” (continues the learned Baronet) “for” (says he) “I have long

ago made the remark that a market for yielding a reduced rate of interest to

small hoards (now lying unproductive, exposed to temptations of the worst kind,

and not forming like Stock a cement of attachment to the state, is a grand

desideratum.

“With a view to remedy this inconvenience in some degree in the metropolis, or

rather to ascertain whether the lower classes would deem 3 per cent good

interest for their hoards deposited on good security, and likewise to induce

them to form funds for the purchase of widowhood, and other Annuities, were

particularly suited to their exigencies, I inserted a clause in the Globe Act,

to authorize the proposed Establishment to receive deposits, not payable at a

less period than six months, and to allow interest on them. If it is meant that

the Charter shall be granted the experiment may be fairly tried at our cost, and

means may be provided that, if it is eventually successful, government may

participate in the success.”

Counter-Observations.

With reference to the proposed Government plan, these admissions in relation to

the Globe Insurance plan, proposed on private account, are certainly not without

their value.

What is to become of the “ewes and lambs” now, and of the project “for making

money breed in a drawer? – The securities given by the Globe Insurance Company

to their depositing customers the petty hoarders that deposit money with them,

breed /are a/ 3 per Cent that

the

JB_003_384.xml

Title: [24 July 1801 Annuity Notes]

Description: 24 July 1801

Annuity Notes

Eden

Lost &c[?]

1

21

Observations continued

9* p.2. “and of perpetual Annuities, that sort strikes me as the very worst,

which will require no form of assignment, but what a man may carry about him as

cash in his pocket, (the worst of all Banks as Mr Bentham justly observes) and

which (supposing these Annuity Notes would pass as money) might be stolen in a

crowd, lost at a gaming table, or spent at an alehouse.”

Counter-Observations.

1. As to being “lost at a gaming table, or spent at an Alehouse”, can the learned

Baronet inform us of any species of property – terra firma not excepted – which

stands exempted from such casualties?

As to being “lost in a crowd”, a principle of security against that accident

constitutes one of the express features of this very proposed species of

property, to which the being exposed to such accidents is objected as peculiar

to it.+

Exchequer Bills. India bonds Irish Debentures (if I am rightly informed) are not

susceptible of this safeguard. The lately disused Navy Bills were, whether by

design or accident: because they could not be transferred without an instrument

of assignment, which instrument was on a separate paper. Bank of England Notes

are by design, as to those purpose for /in respect of/ which a division

bipartite is sufficient to afford it: it was from that species of paper the idea

was taken.

The

+ Note See Table II. Note (24)

Note

and see the Note to Ch. XVI. Moral Advantages which Mr V. has seen (Quere whether

Sir F.G.) in Ms.

JB_003_362.xml

Title: [[Copyist’s hand] nd [wm CM 1799]]

Description: [Copyist’s hand]

nd [wm CM 1799]

Annuity Notes

Eden contin

[marginal heading:] §.12. p.53. 79

Complication

subsidies and imposts, would be puzzled if he were to attempt to give change, for a £100 Bank Note, from a mass of Annuity Notes (part bearing nearly 3 per cent and part 23/8 per cent interest p.33) consisting of Standard Notes, Halves, and Quarters with a few odd years, months, and days, interest due on each, even with the assistance of small change: i:e: notes of 5d/34 bearing an interest of 1/512 part of a farthing per diem. }

[marginal heading:] §.13. p.62. 91

No Silver Paper

{ Paper money, never can answer as a substitute for copper money, till copper is as valuable as gold. }

[marginal heading:] §.14. p.63. 92

No Silver Paper

{ The wear and tear would ruin the paper money mint. A months circulation, among market women, turnpike-keepers, and publicans, would obliterate every clause of these portable contracts, every receipt for interest every table of computation. }

[marginal heading:] §.15 p.65. 95

Circulating medium

(Note) Alarm Contents

{ Of £400,000,000 of Annuity Notes

Supposing them all as good as Bankers Notes

how much would be wanted as a circulating medium? }

Would the remainder be any thing more than a mere security for an Annuity?

Its imperfections, in this office, I have already noticed.

[marginal heading:] §.16. p.74. 104

Bank & Bankers

{ If hoarders should prefer Annuity Notes to Bankers paper & Bankers bills, will not the 4 or 500 Bankers in G. Britain be injured and intitled to compensation?

If circulators should prefer Annuity Notes to B of England Paper will not that public body be a sufferer? }

{ Till, however, the stocks are near par, there seems little probability

that }