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> And yet, it is entirely possible that Scottish notes will not be accepted in my city here on England's South coast. Not because of some specific anti-Scottish

> And yet, it is entirely possible that Scottish notes will not be accepted in my city here on England's South coast. Not because of some specific anti-Scottish bigotry… There’s another reason. Scottish pounds aren’t issued by the central bank, but by commercial banks and aren’t legal tender on England’s south coast (technically not anywhere in the UK, including Scotland) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_Scotland)

tialaramex 3y ago
That's not a coherent reason? The guy operating a corner store isn't taking your money to Threadneedle Street, so why would he care where the notes are issued? His bank knows these notes are the same as the English ones, for them it makes no difference. Legal tender is irrelevant, you note that Scottish notes aren't legal tender in Scotland, but that's because no notes are legal tender in Scotland, it doesn't matter at all. History lesson. The Bank of England was a commercial bank, centuries ago the English government needed money for a navy to fight the French, and their scheme to raise money to pay for it was to agree that a Bank, the Bank of England, shall be created, a Limited Liability Corporation, owned by shareholders, able exclusively to issue notes against government borrowing. For the next few hundred years these shareholders and their successors did very well off this arrangement, and the Royal Navy was powerful enough even into the 20th century that it made Unternehmen Seelöwe [Sealion, a proposed invasion of England by Axis forces after the fall of France] completely impractical even though Hitler really wanted to. However, in the intervening centuries England became just one constituent part of Britain, and in 1946 the by now very much British government decided to Nationalise the bank, so today it's no longer a private commercial business.

tialaramex 3y ago

That's not a coherent reason? The guy operating a corner store isn't taking your money to Threadneedle Street, so why would he care where the notes are issued? His bank knows these notes are the same as the English ones, for them it makes no difference. Legal tender is irrelevant, you note that Scottish notes aren't legal tender in Scotland, but that's because no notes are legal tender in Scotland, it doesn't matter at all. History lesson. The Bank of England was a commercial bank, centuries ago the English government needed money for a navy to fight the French, and their scheme to raise money to pay for it was to agree that a Bank, the Bank of England, shall be created, a Limited Liability Corporation, owned by shareholders, able exclusively to issue notes against government borrowing. For the next few hundred years these shareholders and their successors did very well off this arrangement, and the Royal Navy was powerful enough even into the 20th century that it made Unternehmen Seelöwe [Sealion, a proposed invasion of England by Axis forces after the fall of France] completely impractical even though Hitler really wanted to. However, in the intervening centuries England became just one constituent part of Britain, and in 1946 the by now very much British government decided to Nationalise the bank, so today it's no longer a private commercial business.