,1 1 , 1% - There is no satisfaction to be got out
of the upward course of the £ so far as it is due, as it evidently is in part, to the action of speculators buying in the hope of a further rise and the reconversion of their holdings int() dollars and francs when that happens. The Bank of England can regulate the process up to a point by selling sterling, and it may have been doing so. So far -as that has happened the rise has been kept within narrower limits than would have ruled on an absolutely free market. Currency stability is essential to traders -working mainly on forward contracts, and recent fluctua- tions are diSconcerting on that ground as well as because every rise in the £ diminishes the advantage the British exporter gets in foreign markets by the relatively lower :costs of production at home. Experts still differ as to what the proper level of the £ is, but there seems definitely more dangei at present of its going too high than too low flattering though the rise is to our financial reputation.
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