Promises, promises
YOU WILL find one in your pocket, prob- ably signed by a Mr Kentfield. On behalf of the Governors of the Bank of England, he promises to pay you £5. When the century began, a £5 note was good for five gold sovereigns. Try it on Mr Kentfield now and if you are lucky you will get a new note. If you would rather have the sovereigns, you could buy them — though not from the Bank — and they would cost you £208 plus Value Added Tax. Other countries have seen the value of their currencies destroyed in war and revolution. We have no such excuse. The pound's value has been destroyed in half a century of peace. It has fallen victim to a fatal combination, pecu- liar to our time, of paper money and big government. Given the chance, govern- ments will always be tempted to finance themselves through the printing press. They may never need to default on their debts, for inflation can do the work for them. Equally, their promises can scarcely be as good as gold.
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