Vincent Vickers' Economic Tribulation

[Idaho Kid]

Ever since that day in 1926, when, not in arrogance but with humility, I felt it my duty to explain to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Montagu Norman, that 'henceforth I was going to fight him and the Gold Standard and the Bank of England policy until I died' – (and well I remember the words of his reply) – I have been an ardent money reformer.
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VINCENT CARTWRIGHT VICKERS was born on 16th January 1879, and educated at Eton and
Magdalen College, Oxford. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of the City of London, a director of
Vickers, Limited, for twenty-two years, and a director of the London Assurance from which he
resigned in January 1939. In 1910 he was made a governor of the Bank of England, and resigned
this appointment in 1919. Later, he became President of the Economic Reform Club and Institute.
He died on 3rd November 1939, after a long illness during which, against time and with failing
strength, he was working and writing on economics. A few days before his death he wrote: 'My
keen desire to help up to the end has been the sole incentive which still enabled me to carry on
perhaps a few weeks longer.'

It has therefore been my privilege to arrange my father's papers into the book which he laboured to
finish, and which represents only a part of his ceaseless work towards national and international
economic stability and his single-minded convictions of its attainment.
WILMA CAWDOR

FOREWORD
I who write this, need no proof of the importance of the money system upon the very lives of the
people and even to the future existence of the British race, so long as that system fills the position
which it now holds in our National Economy.

There are many thousands of well-educated men and women who, I believe, endorse my views in
their entirety. But even for the most zealous of money reformers to attempt to write upon so vast
and momentous a subject as our monetary system and the management of our national finances,
such attempt would appear doomed to failure unless it were supported by great financial experts
whose names were a by-word in the country. The next best alternative was that the author should
himself be qualified by past experiences to express an opinion worth reading.

I therefore decided to take the unprecedented course of offering to my readers my own
qualifications for putting down before the British people the very precarious condition of our
monetary system as it exists in this country to-day; that this our money system forms the most
important part of our, economic system, and that the nation's economic system forms part of our
social system.

Ever since that day in 1926, when, not in arrogance but with humility, I felt it my duty to explain to
the Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Montagu Norman, that 'henceforth I was going to fight
him and the Gold Standard and the Bank of England policy until I died' – (and well I remember the
words of his reply) – I have been an ardent money reformer.

Some few years afterwards I resigned my long directorship of Vickers, Limited, since when I have
spent much time and money in advocating the necessity for a reform of the monetary system. This
has naturally brought me into contact with most sections of the community; with Communists and
those with axes to grind, with malcontents and debtors, and, in addition, with men and women who
are honest and disinterested patriots. Not more than a tenth of my income is earned; the rest comes
from investments in Banks, Bank of England stocks, American and Canadian securities, etc., and
mainly, from British industrial securities. I am therefore a 'capitalist' – one who as seen better times
– and content to remain in my present financial position, but most unwilling to have my present
standard of living further reduced. I bear no ill-feeling towards my own class or any other class. I
seek neither notoriety nor kudos. If someone can change my convictions I shall be only to ready to
alter them. But in fifteen years nothing whatever has occurred to make me alter my views. I still
believe that the existing system is actively harmful to the state, creates poverty and unemployment,
and is the root cause of war.

This personal Confession is merely to demonstrate that I have seen both sides of the picture. My
opinions are based upon my own experience and knowledge. I am to-day in the unique position of
being absolutely and entirely devoid of animosity and wholly disinterested. I feel myself no longer
under any restrictions whatsoever, except to guard against doing harm to my country or giving
offence to anyone.
V. C. V., October 1939