A Short Account of the Bank of England.

[BANK OF ENGLAND]. & [GODFREY (William).]

Published by [1695]., 1695

About this Item

First edition. 4to (250 x 200mm). Single sheet folded to make eight pages, uncut and unopened. Terminal leaf with old repairs to foot (printed surface not affected, tiny hole in lower margin of first leaf, probably removing signature ("A"), some light toning and creasing. Occasional ink underlinings in an early hand, almost entirely faded. Housed in a red cloth folding chemise. N.p. [London ?], n.p. An extremely rare and ephemeral defence of the Bank of England by Michael Godfrey, one of the principal founders of the Bank and its first Deputy Governor, published in the year after the founding of the Bank and responding directly to its many critics. The establishment of the Bank of England was controversial, inspiring party-political critics who dismissed the Bank as a Whig project, as well as attacks from rival financial projectors, most prominently by advocates of land banks such as Hugh Chamberlen. Godfrey's Short Account was one of several publications issued by leading figures from within the newly-found involved with the Bank who sought to answer its critics and inspire the confidence of the public (see Horsefield, p. 232). Godfrey's apologia for the Bank sought to reassure the public that the new endeavour "is one of the best Establishments that was ever made for the good of the Kingdom." It offers a succinct summary of Tunnage Act of April 1694 and the terms of its first Royal Charter three month later in July 1694. Godfrey extols the public as well as private benefits of the bank. ?The bank, he explained, ?being thus useful to the Publick, extends itself likewise to commodity all Private Men?s Occasions.? He goes on to list the ?accommodations? given - loans on mortgages, foreign bills of exchange, inland bills, promissory notes and the Orphans?s Funds; and pawns of commodities. ?All who want money and have securities, know where to be supplied ? Those who lodge their money in the Bank have it as much at their disposal as if it were ? in their cash chest.? (quoted in Horsefield, p. 136). Godfrey indulges in an extended attack on the "oppressive extortion" of the goldsmiths and other private lenders in the city of London, whose old tally sticks were threatened by the new Bank of England notes: "If the bulk of the money of the nation which has been lodged with the goldsmiths had been deposited in the Bank four or five years past, it had prevented its being so scandalously clipped, which one day or the other must cost the nation one and a half millions or two millions to repair it." Godfrey's pamphlet "shows the considerable skill with which the writer met the many arguments of the Bank's earliest critics, while at the same time it also throws some light upon the proceedings of the Bank itself" ('The Bank of England. Some Account of its History and Surrounding', p. 388). Rogers suggests that the pamphlet was published in June 1695 (The First Nine Years of the Bank of England, p. 34). In the following month, July 1695, Godfrey was tragically killed in Flanders. "Godfrey was one of three directors sent over to Flanders to supervise the establishment of an agency in Antwerp, and they duly waited on William III, at that time besieging Namur, on 17 July 1695. Following dinner with the king the party from England took a view from the trenches in front of the town, when a stray cannon ball killed Godfrey as he stood next to the king. The shock of Godfrey's death hit bank stock, which lost 2 per cent of its value" (ODNB). Although this is a single sheet folded twice as in quarto format, it conforms to that described as a folio by ESTC, with 8pp. rather than the 12pp. of the reprinted quarto edition published after Godfrey's death (the title for which includes the reference: "Heretofore published by Michael Godfrey Esq; deceased, and now reprinted"). Our copy measures approx. 250 x 200 mm. However, the present example is certainly a variant of the first edition as per Kress 1895, without the imprint at the foot of the final page.

Seller Inventory # 249511

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Short Account of the Bank of England.
• Publisher: [1695].
• Publication Date: 1695
• Binding: Hardcover