ABSTRACT
Founded in 1694, the Bank of England had long been legally compelled to publish statistics about its current operations; before 1833, however, the Bank did not make public its activities except in times of crisis when Parliament demanded information. While Government was slow in making public its records in finance and banking, there were individuals who culled much important information from the official records. The rate of exchange, the value which one unit of currency of standard mint weight and value holds for one or more other currency units, is very important in commercial transactions. Rather, the London debtor's agent in Hamburg or Paris, for example, would arrange to pay the foreign creditor by buying a bill of exchange in that city's local Exchange. Taxation was of course one of the major sources of government revenue. The failure of income to keep up with expenditure may be seen in the progress of the National Debt.
