Exchange Restrictions in England
| Date | 01 January 1940 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1939.tb00759.x |
| Author | F. A. Mann |
| Published date | 01 January 1940 |
202
MODERN LAW REVIEW
Jan.,
1940
EXCHANGE RESTRICTIONS IN
ENGLAND
HE
restrictions upon dealings in and transfers of gold,
exchange and certain foreign securities which were intro-
duced in consequence of the outbreak of war, constitute
a
measure unprecedented in the financial history of this country.
Laws against the export of gold and silver, it is true, were on the
statute book from the fourteenth century onwards, and the two
fairly elaborate Acts of 1663 and 1696 were in force until at the
end of the Bank Restriction Period complete freedom of trade in
precious metals was restored or, rather, introduced to the modem
system.l Even during the Great War, 1914-1918, the Government
at first confined itself to preventing the export of gold only, and
this
it
did
by purely administrative measures which, after the
end of the war, were put
on
a more secure basis by an Order in
Council published in the
Londori
Gazette
of 1st April, 1919, and,
subsequently, by the Gold and Silver (Export Control, etc.) Act,
1920.
As regards American and Canadian and some other securi-
ties, at the end of 19x5 an appeal was issued to place them at the
Government's disposal, and
it
was not before January, 1917, that
the Treasury obtained power to purchase them compulsorily.*
In the present war the Government took more immediate
and far-reaching steps. The first Order in Council, made in
pursuance of
s.
I,
Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939:
and containing the Defence (Finance) Regulations, 1939, in their
original form, was dated the 25th August, 1939.~
It
was super-
seded by the Order of 3rd September,S and its present form
is
laid down in the Defence (Finance) Regulations Amendment
(No.
2)
Orders of 23rd November, 1939, as amended by the Order
of the 20th December, 1939.~" Further Orders were made by the
Treasury, particularly the Currency Restrictions Exemption
Orders of which
No.
4, dated the 20th December, 1939,'
is
now
in force.
It
is
to be regretted that this country seems to have
followed the bad example set by
so
many foreign countries where
the regulations were at first rather unsystematical and improvised
and where
it
took years until consolidating regulations put
SO
important
a
part of the law on a workable basis.
See Mann,
The
Legal
Aspect
of
Money,
pp.
52,
53.
T
1
See Feavearyear,
The
Pound
Sted'ling,
pp.
307.308;
S.R.
&
0.
1917,
No.
47.
*
2
&
3
Geo.
VI,
Ch.
62.
4
S.R.
&
O.,
1939,
NO.
950.
6
S.R.
&
0..
1939,
NO.
1067.
'
S.R.
&
O.,
1939.
NO.
1620.
OES.R.
&
0..
1939.
NO.
1827.
'
S.R.
&
O.,
1939.
NO.
1843.
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