Resumption of convertibility of bank notes into gold

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Domains

Banking
Currency

Dates

Date of occurrence 1821-05-07

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Location)
United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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The decision to resume the conversion of paper currency into specie was incumbent on the government by the terms of their suspension in February 1797, but during the postwar financial crisis, the resumption was deferred from 1814 to 1815, then to 1816, then to 1818, then, by the Act of 1819 (oftern referred to as Peel's Bill) to 1 February 1820 for gold bars and to 1 May 1823 for gold coin. The decision made, the Directors of the Bank of England accelerated the process and achieved the resumption of all cash payments by May 1821. The process of readjustment implied a fall in prices by one third and caused widespread recession and hardship.

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103 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Resumption of convertibility of bank notes into gold". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5478, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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