Inclusive of the £5,500,000 set aside for the redemption of currency notes, the Bank of England's stock of gold amounted on October 17 to _£64,735,000. That, says "The Financier," is an unpr2- cedented total, and it represents addition of no less than £37,113,000 since the outbreak of war. The annual average of coin and bullion held by the Bank of England has not varied very greatly in recent ye In 1896 it was exceptionally high at £44,334,000. and in 1899 it fell to £32,268,000. Since then it has been up to £38,763,000 and down to £33,390,000. Enough has been said to show that the present figure far surpasses all Previous records. It remarkable: result, showing that, far from finding our gold reserves depleted by war, we have been able substantially to augment them.
It is not uninteresting to compare the gold reserve of Great Britain contained in the central banking institution of the country with that of our Allies and enemy ies. These reserves, according to the latest available returns, are 4.735.007
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.