If it is in London, India will be able, by the sale of telegraphic sterling transfers in Calcutta, to discharge her due obligations cheaply and without delay; if it is in Calcutta, additional charges and a loss of time must be incurred. It is sufficiently well known that until 1893 the currency of India was on the basis of silver freely minted, the gold value of the rupee fluctuating with the gold value of silver bullion.
It had ‘Consols’ and other securities which it could offer for sale no doubt, and which, if sold, would augment its supply of bank notes–and the relation of such securities to real cash will be discussed presently; but of real cash, the Bank of England for this purpose–the banking bank–had then so much and no more.
After 1825, there was not again a real panic in the money market till 1847. No doubt, formerly the Bank of England could issue what it pleased, but that historical reminiscence makes it no stronger now that it can no longer so issue. Goschen recommended that the Bank of England should, as a rule, raise their rate by steps of 1 per cent at a time when the object of the rise was to affect the ‘foreign Exchanges.