Bank-Notes, Paper-Money, French-Alarmists. . .
This is the first of several prints by Gillray in response to the recently passed Bank Restriction Act of 1797 which created a paper-currency no longer backed by gold, relieving the Bank of England from having to pay out gold in exchange for equivalent banknotes.
© Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
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A clerk-like William Pitt is shown handing out notes in exchange for John Bull's gold coin, while "French-Alarmists" i.e. Whigs Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan do their best to dissuade John from doing so. The perennially debt-ridden Sheridan exclaims "Dont take his Notes! nobody takes Notes now! - they'll not even take Mine!" And Fox, who had been consistently lobbying to end the war and make peace with France, adds, "Dont take his damn'd Paper, John! insist upon having Gold, to make your Peace with the French, when they come." In the background from left to right, Tories Grenville, Loughborough, and Kenyon carry in more bags of notes to be handed out, while below the counter, Pitt stockpiles the padlocked sacks of actual pounds sterling.
In March 1797, England was embarking on its fourth year of a very expensive war with France, a war which was severely straining the coffers of the treasury. For not only did England have its own wartime expenses, it was also on the hook for the wartime expenditures of many of its coalition partners. In spite of imposing taxes on everything from carriages, horses, dogs, servants, paper, hair powder, and hats, the Pitt administration was continually spending more than it was bringing in, and the value of the paper money in circulation was now approximating twice its gold reserves.
Two recent attempts by France to invade England (through Ireland in December 1796 and through Fishguard in February 1797), had put the country on edge prompting a run on banks in several provincial towns as citizens wanted to cash out and keep their savings for themselves. So over the objections of Whigs like Fox and Sheridan, and to prevent a total bankruptcy, Pitt and the Tories passed the Bank Restrictions Act on the day before this print appeared.
As usual, Fox and Sheridan are shown, in effect, as French sympathizers wearing a bonnet rouge (in Sheridan's case) and a tri-coloured cockade (in Fox's). But in this case Gillray goes further. Fox's words suggest that he does not consider the question of IF the French will come, but only WHEN they will come, and that he is already thinking of a post-revolutionary England. The words that Gillray puts in John Bull's mouth confirm the inference that Fox and the Whigs are "Frenchmen" ready to concede the country to France, and that John Bull's money is better spent continuing the war and resisting an invasion.
. . . a' may as well let my Measter Billy hold the Gold to keep away you Frenchmen, as save it, to gee it you, when ye come over, with your domn'd invasion.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Bank-Notes, Paper-Money, French-Alarmists. . .
- "Bank Restriction Act 1797," Wikipedia
- "Battle of Fishguard," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #165.
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times p. 219—220.
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