Finance, Romance

Decades if not centuries ago, the conservatism of the Bank of England was coined into a name--"The

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street." Since 1694 written records have been preserved of her spinsterhood. Now at last an old servant, one W. Marston Acres, long in her employ, is to write her biography. Last week the august Court of Directors of the Bank of England commissioned him to "compile a story particularly stressing the points of human interest in the history of the world's most famous bank."

Mr. Acres' discretion can be trusted. His book will be no lurid chronicle of philanderings with John Bull. Nevertheless the Council, which all but overreaches the Old Lady in Conservatism, has suspended judgment as to whether her biography is to be made public until it has been inspected and found blameless.

Having dealt for a moment in "human interest," the Council returned to arithmetic. To the surprise of English and American financiers, the Bank of England cut its discount rate from 4 1/2% to 4%, the lowest that has been in force since the middle of 1923 (see BUSINESS).

Concurrently the pound sterling was quoted at $4.83 7/8, the lowest figure since Britain returned to the gold standard. This represents a fall of 3/16 of a cent from the previous week, and was supposed to be due to heavy British purchases of grain and cotton. U. S. bankers_ calculated that the exchange is now well below the point which calls for an export of gold from London to New York. It is expected that Britannia will draw upon credits of $100,000,000 and $200,000,000 respectively, at her disposal with J. P. Morgan & Co. and the Federal Reserve Bank, to avoid an actual gold shipment.

It was suggested recently that by an adroit sleight Britain might be granted the blessings of a decimal coinage. A comnittee of the Federation of British Industries is urging that a 20% increase in value be added to the penny. There would then be 10 pennies to the shilling and 200 to the pound; a fair start at decimals for Britishers long wedded to "crowns," "farthings," and other odd lot coins.