Old Lady

What Is the Old Lady?

The "Old Lady" is an eighteenth-century moniker for the Bank of England. It is a short variant of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, a reference to the bank's address in London.

Figuring out the Old Lady

The Old Lady, as a moniker for the Bank of England, starts in a James Gillray political animation from 1797. The animation, "Political Ravishment, or The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in Danger!" portrays a lady in a dress of one-and two-pound notes sitting on a chest stamped "Bank of England." A man, Prime Minister William Pitt, effectively kisses the lady while going after the gold coins in her pocket. The lady shouts, "Murder! murder! Assault! murder! O you Villain! what have I kept my Honor untainted so long, to have it separated by you finally? O Murder! Assault! Ravishment! Ruin! Ruin! Ruin!!!"

The animation remarks on the then recent decision by the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger that, under the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, the bank would suspend redemption of notes for gold and start making payments to customers solely in paper money as opposed to coins. The Act was passed in response to an early run on the Bank following a period of heavy paper note issuance to finance the war with France and set off by the landing of French powers close to the town of Fishguard.

The historical moment addressed a trial of the public's confidence in paper currency as well as of the political power of the prime clergyman to impose his rights. This was the initial time in the Bank's history that its notes were as of now not redeemable in gold. Leaders of the resistance Whig party in the Parliament characterized the Act as a preposterous repeal of private contract and compared the Bank to an elderly lady tempted by a cheat (for example Pitt the Younger). This comparison then turned into the basis for Gillray's animation.

This exaggeration of the Bank of England as an elderly person stuck, and would over and again show up in political kid's shows, newspaper titles, and common financial vernacular.

History of the Bank of England

The Bank of England, presently the central bank of the whole United Kingdom, started in 1694 and has given the diagram to most central banks currently operating across the globe. Initially the Bank of England worked as a retail bank too. The bank experienced its most memorable crisis in 1720, when the South Sea Company financed a portion of Britain's national debt and acquired trading rights in what is presently South America. A price flood in South Sea Company stock followed. The stock in the end crashed, and many lost their fortunes.

The bank moved to Threadneedle Street in 1734 from its original location on Walbrook.

One more crisis in 1825 prodded the Bank of England to open branches across the country to apply more control over the currency. In 1866, the Bank of England wouldn't bail out discount house Overend Gurney after it imploded under the weight of terrible loans. The crisis ultimately expanded the job of the Old Lady as a lender to bombing financial institutions.

Features

• The Old Lady, or the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, is an everyday moniker for the Bank of England.
• This moniker starts from a 1797 mocking animation with respect to the suspension of gold redemption under the Restriction Act of 1797.
• The moniker has since showed up in kid's shows, newspapers, books, and common utilization to allude to the Bank.