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"A verbal understanding confirmed by correspondence, extended
Great Britain a two hundred million dollar gold loan or credit. All
negotiations were conducted between Benjamin Strong,
Governor of
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Mr. Montagu Norman,
Governor of the Bank of England. The purpose of this loan was to help
England get back on the gold standard, and the loan was to be met
by investment of Federal Reserve funds in bills of exchange and foreign
securities."
The Federal Reserve Bulletin of June, 1925, stated that:
"Under its arrangement with the Bank of England the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York
undertakes to sell gold on credit to the Bank of
England from time to time during the next two years, but not to
exceed $200,000,000 outstanding at any one time."
A two hundred million dollar gold credit had been arranged by a
verbal understanding between the international bankers, Benjamin
Strong and Montagu Norman. It was apparent by this time that the
Federal Reserve System had other interests at heart than the financial
needs of American business and industry. Great Britain’s return to the
gold standard was further facilitated by an additional gold loan of a
hundred million dollars from J.P. Morgan Company. Winston Churchill,
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, complained later that the cost to
the British government of this loan was $1,125,000 the first year, this sum
representing the profit to J.P. Morgan Company in that time.
The matter of changing the discount rate, for instance, has never been
satisfactorily explained. Inquiry at the Federal Reserve Board in
Washington elicited the reply that "the condition of the money market
is the prime consideration behind changes in the rate." Since the