My story, and it is a
true story, starts in November 1769, when a Bank was started under
the name Douglas, Heron & Co.
Among its shareholders
were some of the wealthiest men and the largest landowners in
Scotland.
One of its main
branches was in Ayr, near where I lived, and we called it the Ayr
Bank.
In only 3 years, by
June of 1772, the bank had issued £1.2 million in loans. That is
success!
It issued its own
banknotes.
Very quickly those
banknotes amounted to around two thirds of the currency in Scotland.
It meant nearly all of
the money in Scotland was based on the promises on those banknotes.
What a success indeed,
but how could it become even more successful?
It didn't have enough
resources of its own, so it started to borrow from other banks, one
in London was its favourite.
It could now expand,
and expand, who knew the limits of its success, and the riches in
store for its owners?
You probably haven't
heard of the crash of 1772, it's a long time ago for you, but put
simply a lot of Banks went bust, the favourite Bank in London was one
of those that went bust.
That meant the Ayr Bank
found it had a very very serious problem – it didn't have enough
money to honour all the promises it had made on its banknotes.
What to do?
It asked the Bank of
England for help, but the terms were too severe.
So it turned to other
Banks, and every bank it turned to refused to help.
So, in August 1773, 3
years after it started the Ayr Bank closed. Bust!
History records that
the main reasons for the Bank going bust were:
trading beyond their
means;
forcing the circulation
of their notes
giving credit too
easily
ignorance of the
principles of business
and carelessness or
iniquity of officers.
Many families in
Ayrshire were made penniless by the collapse of Douglas, Heron &
Co, the Ayr Bank, my own family included.
But that's hundreds of
years ago, ancient history, you will have all learned the lessons in
my story, surely?
You wouldn't let it
happen again – would you?
You wouldn't just sit
and watch while Banks borrow and lend money as if there were no
tomorrow – would you?
You wouldn't let Banks
issue all your currency – would you?
You wouldn't let Banks
make promises you don't know whether they can keep – would you?
No, you in your time,
will have learned all the lessons needed – haven't you?
You won't have
inequality, with some of the very rich in charge, and getting richer,
and the rest struggling to get by.
You won't have anyone
in desperate need of a house, or of clothes.
You won't have children
going without warmth or even without food
You won't have anyone forced to look for work on the lowest of wages.
No, I am sure you won't
have any of such things – you will have learned all of the lessons
– you will have changed how the system works – you will never let
it happen again – will you?
Your time, your
history, your story, will be so so different – won't it?
My poem?
Written on a banknote?
No, it's true, it was a Bank of Scotland guinea note.
My life had become a
bit hectic, that's maybe putting it mildly to be honest, and I was
thinking of leaving Scotland and finding work as an overseer on a
plantation in the West Indies.
Here's the poem:
Wae worth thy power,
thou cursed leaf!
Fell source o' a' my
woe and grief!
For lack o' thee I've
lost my lass!
For lack o' thee I
scrimp my glass!
I see the children of
affliction Unaided, through thy curst restriction:
I've seen the
oppressor's cruel smile Amid his hapless victim's spoil;
And for thy potence
vainly wished,
To crush the villain in
the dust:
For lack o' thee, I
leave this much-lov'd shore,
Never, perhaps, to
greet old Scotland more.
Now as it happened, I
managed to have a collection of my poems published, they became a
success, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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