The moratorium must be counted among the
Governmental acts which, so far at least, have saved the day for
business credits. In England the Government permitted suspension of the
Bank act, (not of the Bank, as many Americans seem to imagine.)
Improvised Accounting Methods.
The Bank of England has been enabled to rediscount a great mass of
acceptances by the guarantee of the British Government against loss in
so doing. These in the end will amount to several hundred millions of
dollars. Emergency notes were issued by Governmental authority on both
sides of the Atlantic, and in the arrangements made for special gold
funds in Canada and in France the Governments of England and France
played the important parts. Thus have been improvised methods of
international accounting by which the transportation of gold balances
may be deferred and largely dispensed with. Our own Government has
co-operated in the currency exchange and credit situation in many ways.
It made provision for sending gold to Europe for our stranded
countrymen. It promptly revised the banking and shipping laws.
Whether further instability will be found to need such bolstering we
cannot be sure.
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