“ . . . Sir Prudently Fret (governor) said credit was scarce and the threats to stability extreme. There was a complete absence of American leadership. The French were bent on imposing their ideology on the rest of Europe. In the light of the downside risks (Papism, war, collapse of the English cart-making industry), he invited the committee to vote to set the Bank Rate at 2 per cent. Mr Squander argued for 1.5 per cent, the ‘lowest since records began’, but was deemed to be drunk or mad. The governor said he could not imagine any situation would ever justify a rate lower than 2 per cent: ‘The very banks would crumble, financiers would become pariahs, and Mr Woolworth’s candied fruit emporium would be scattered to the four corners of the earth’. The committee, agreeing such fantastical events were inconceivable, voted unanimously in favour of the proposition.”
