PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
|
|
BANKING CRISIS OF 1825 England was at war with France and Irish rebels were plotting with the French to invade the British Isles. They intended to follow it up with an insurrection in Ireland. There was unrest among seamen at Spithead and a mutiny in the Thames estuary. It was not a promising start to the 19th century. There was growing disquiet throughout the land and on Tuesday September 27th 1825 there was a run on the bank of Messrs Prideaux and Company at Kingsbridge. They stopped making payments at 11am the following day. By the evening of 28th the news had reached Plymouth and the following day there was tremendous pressure on banks in Plymouth and Devonport. At 3pm on Saturday October 1st the Plymouth Dock Bank stopped making payments. It had been under the sturdy management of Mr Thomas Clinton Shiells and Mr Henry Incledon Johns but that did not prevent the collapse. Mr Shiells, a magistrate from Woodlands, near Ivybridge, died four days later, a broken man. The Plymouth Bank, managed by Sir William Elford, Mr John Tingcombe and Mr John Were Clark, the Naval Bank, managed by Messrs Harris, Rosdew, Harris and Company, and the General Bank in Woolster Street, were also under pressure. In an effort to calm the situation, all the banks placed adverts in the local newspapers on Saturday October 8th 1825 thanking account holders for trying to maintain confidence. In the case of the Plymouth Bank, it did not work and it had to close. On Saturday November 26th and Sunday November 27th 1825 the remaining banks sent to the City of London for supplies of gold and in Lombard Street there was great activity as post-chaises were filled with gold and despatched to the provinces. Despite being kept open for an extra hour a day, from 9am until 5pm, the amount of coins supplied by the London banks still did not satisfy demands and business in the Three Towns came to a standstill when the tradesmen found they could not get hold of enough cash to pay the wages on Saturday evening. Plymothians were only prepared to accept gold rather than the worthless paper money. Luckily, the days passed without major crisis and by Christmas confidence had been largely restored. New coins were being hastily minted and the Bank of England decided to restart issuing £1 and £2 notes. The post-chaises were once again loaded up and despatched to the provinces but this time with paper money. A direct result of 1825 crisis was the Banking Copartnership Act of 1826 and by 1830 there were only five banks remaining in Plymouth and Devonport.
|
