These figures show that whereas bank deposits were roughly doubled during the war period, cash currency was multiplied by very nearly three, its relatively greater increase being probably due to the shifting of income into the hands of manual workers and others who did not keep accounts at banks. It will be noted that an entirely new form of currency was introduced. This is the Currency note, or Treasury note, which was invented in the first week of the war, in order to meet the banking crisis which began, and reached its worst point before we were actually at war. We do not yet know why it happened that in England alone the currency expansion which was thought to be necessary owing to war took this special form. In France and Germany the increase in legal tender currency was carried out through the official banks. They made advances to the Governments and the Governments took the advances in the notes of the Reichsbank or the Bank of France and paid them out to meet the demands of war. It has never been explained why the same thing did not happen in England. We do know that a committee of bankers long before the war had told the Treasury that in case of a banking crisis in this country we should need some
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