We have not yet discovered anything with reference to a successful plan at Bath to which Daniel de Lisle Brock here alludes (see page 40). We assume the reference to Liverpool is to the fact that during a time of financial panic the Liverpool Corporation was empowered by Statute 33, Geo. III., c. 31 (10th May, 1793), to issue notes of £5, £10, £50 and £100 for value received or other due security.

This Act entitled "An Act to enable the Common Council of the Town of Liverpool in the County of Lancaster on behalf of and on account of the Corporation of the said Town to issue negotiable notes for a limited time and to a limited amount," was passed after the Corporation of Liverpool had failed to obtain a loan of £100,000 from the Bank of England.

The £50 and £100 notes bore interest not exceeding the lawful rate and at 12 months' date. The £5 and £ 10 notes were payable to bearer on demand without interest. The total issue was at no time to exceed £300,000. Returns had to be forwarded to the House of Commons from time to time. From one of these returns we learn that the notes issued to 28th February, 1795, amounted to £140,390, based on security valued at £155,907 16s. 6d. In a report forwarded 23rd April, 1794, it was stated that £52,985 worth of notes were in circulation at that date.Great care was taken in the issue of the notes. The Committee of the Corporation that was responsible for the same met daily.

In order to give a wider utility to the notes, London correspondents were appointed and a large number were made payable in London. This made it possible for the Corporation itself to apply to the Committee for a large loan of £50,000.

The security on which advances were made were very various. It included cotton, timber, iron, hops, whale oil, bills of exchange, ships on the stocks and the Alt rates.

For further particulars of this interesting incident, the reader is referred to Sidney and Beatrice Webb's English Local Government: "The Manor and the Borough," p. 485, and to E. C. K. Gonner's Article, "Municipal Bank Notes in Liverpool, 1793-95," which appeared in the Economic Journal, Vol. VI., 1896, pp. 484-487, to whom the writer is largely indebted for the above facts.