Prefatory Note to the Twelfth Edition

As more than thirty years have elapsed since the first publication of this little book, it has been thought desirable to bring the figures, and some of the examples used, up to the present time.

My best thanks are due to the friend who has placed his services at my disposal for this purpose.

The new matter is confined to notes, and the text of the original work has not been touched.

Eliza Bagehot.

May, 1906.

* * * Like the English Constitution, the English credit system is a living thing, that has grown out of its past and is growing into its future. Past, present, and future are thus one continuing process, and no one can hope to understand its present, still less to peer into its future, unless he knows something of the past that is part of them. Bagehot's "Lombard Street" lights up, with the fire of its author's genius, the road that we have travelled, and helps us to see where we are and to wonder whither we are going. Its usefulness, as a work of reference and a standard of comparison, has been enhanced in this new edition by a careful revision of the Notes, carried out by Mr. A. W. Wright, a member of the staff of theEconomist newspaper, long edited by Bagehot.

Hartley Withers.

February, 1915.