§ 68. Sir F. WISEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the pre-War currency per head of the population and the currency 41 per head of the population on the 31st March, 1927 (notes and gold)?
| ESTIMATED CURRENCY PER HEAD IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRISH FREE STATE. | |||||||||
| — | 30th June, 1914. | 31st March, 1927. | |||||||
| Amount. | Per head. | Amount. | Per head. | ||||||
| £ | £ | s. | d. | £ | £ | s. | d. | ||
| Bank of England Notes (a) | … | 29,784,000 | 12 | 11 | 81,703,000 | 1 | 13 | 11 | |
| Currency Notes | … | — | — | 288,067,000 | 5 | 19 | 6 | ||
| Gold Coin | … | 123,000,000(b) | 2 | 13 | 5 | —(c) | — | ||
| Silver Coin | … | 34,000,000 | 14 | 9 | 52,000,000(d) | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| Bronze Coin | … | 8,000,000 | 3 | 4 | |||||
| Total | … | 186,784,000 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 429,770,000 | 8 | 18 | 4 |
| (a) Excluding notes held in the Bank of England Reserve and, in 1927, in the Currency Note Reserve. | |||||||||
| (b) Estimate used by Cunliffe Committee (par. 13 of Interim Report). | |||||||||
| (c) The amount of Gold Coin which may be in the hands of the public is unknown. | |||||||||
| (d) Excluding Silver Coin held in Currency Note Reserve. |
§ 69. Sir F. WISEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as the recent Whitsuntide demands brought the Treasury note issue to within about £1,000,000 of the fiduciary maximum, if he will consider setting up a Committee, to consider this technical financial problem?
§ Mr. McNEILLNo, Sir. There is nothing abnormal in the fiduciary circulation approaching the maximum at holiday time and there is no special problem involved therein.