ABSTRACT
In many textbooks the reserve base system of control is implicitly or explicitly assumed to be the only technique used other than price effects on deposits (2.4.1). In the UK this system has never been used, and the authorities believe that it could not work (p. 11). There have been ratios of various kinds in the UK, but they have neither been intended to nor have they operated as a reserve ratio in the textbook sense. On the other hand, the reserve base system in one form or another is used in the USA, Germany, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
