England a control over the bullion market rather inconsistent with London's old claim to be a free gold market.
The most interesting part of the Cunliffe Report, however, was that in which it, in effect, answered Sir Edward Holden's criticisms and discussed the changes that he recommended. It did not mention Sir Edward by name, but observed that the Committee had carefully considered various proposals laid before it concerning the basis upon which the fiduciary note issue should in future be fixed. It had been urged that under the rigid restrictions of the Act of 1844 a famine of legal tender money might ensue, and that it was consequently desirable that these rigid restrictions should be transformed into something more elastic, and that the following principal proposals, either separately or in combination, had been put before it by various witnesses:—
"1. That the Banking and Issue Departments of the Bank of England should be amalgamated.
"2. That the issue of additional notes instead of being required to be covered pound for pound by gold should be freely allowed, subject only to the condition that a prescribed percentage of the total issue should be so covered.
