A gentleman asked me the other day upon what subject I intended next to
write, and on telling him that the Editor had kindly permitted me to
deal with the Bank of England and the National Debt, he said, "Nonsense!
what do girls want to know about the Bank of England and the National
Debt? Let them be content to leave all such knowledge to men, and rest
satisfied if they get their dividends all right and know how to spend
them properly and keep out of debt."
He seemed to forget that to do even the little he permitted us would
require knowledge and education of a liberal character, and that without
these our desires might outrun our income, and getting into debt might
prove our normal condition.
A thorough knowledge of our circumstances is better than partial
blindness, and to see things all round and weigh them justly is better
than sitting with hands folded while men see and judge for us.
The subjects of the Bank of England and the National Debt are well worth
a study, and will not fail to afford us both varied and interesting
information.
Among other things they will tell us how the Bank of England came into
existence; what the nation did previous to its existence; how our
country came to have a debt which it has never been able to pay off, and
how it would prove a calamity if it were possible to pay it off
suddenly.
Again, we shall learn the meaning of "selling out" and "buying in"
money, and what is understood by "consols," "reduced threes," "stocks
going up and down," "a run upon the Bank," "panic," and many other such
terms.
There is no reason why girls should not be able to give answers to all
of these, and every reason why they should, seeing that an intimate
knowledge of these subjects is as much a part of our nation's history as
is the history of our kings and queens, our wars, and our institutions.
And even beyond this, it is a matter of importance that girls having
property, little or much, should understand the character of those to
whom they entrust it.
There are many and valuable books published upon these subjects, but
they are expensive to buy and take a long time to wade through; in
addition to this, they are so learned that we women-folk fail often to
get the simple information we require, even when we have read them.
The Bank of England, either by name or by sight, is known, I suppose, to
all of us; but its origin, its working, its influence, is not so
familiar to us, and it does not seem to me that we should be going at
all out of our province if we were to ask the "Old Lady of
Threadneedle-street" to tell us something of her history, her household,
and her daily life, seeing that most of us contribute to her
housekeeping, some more, some less.
We trust her so completely that "safe as the Bank of England" has passed
into a proverb; yet, for all that, we should like the old lady's own
account of how she came into existence, and how she became such a power
in the land, and what she does with all the money we lend her, and out
of what purse she pays us for the loan.
She certainly ought to be able to tell an interesting tale--for her
palace, her servants, her house-keeping, her treasures, her cellars, her
expenditure, her receipts and clearing, the frights she has every now
and again both given and received, must each and all be more amusing and
full of interest than any fairy tale told by Grimm or Andersen.