Gold!
School is still without heating, despite them saying it was fixed, and we still have to go there and just wear coats in lessons rather than have the luxury of central heating.
In other news, bank notes have been puzzling me lately. They still all contain the line “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of…”. Originally, bank notes were filled in by hand, for any amount you wanted, as long as you deposited the same amount of gold. They were also signed by a cashier at the Bank of England. The crucial thing was that you could go back to the bank and demand your gold, to the value shown on the note. Between 1797 and 1821, the Bank of England refused to pay out gold due to a shortage caused by the Seven Years War. That didn’t happen again until World War 1.
So, what happens now? Well, the Bank of England do not give you gold for your notes; they don’t have enough, and haven’t since 1931. Our currency, however, still has to be backed by something or it would be worthless. The Bank of England now say that note issuing is…
fiduciary, that is wholly backed by securities instead of gold.
Well, “securities” are stocks and shares, and “fiduciary” implies that the Bank of England is holding these shares in trust on our behalf. So, what do you get if you demand to be paid by the Bank of England? Presumably you will get a certificate for some shares, although in what I have no idea. Personally, I’d prefer to be given a few Krugerrand or an ingot here and there that a minute percentage of Corus or Sainsbury’s.
Still, if I get bored I may go down to the Bank of England and see what they say.