Chamberlain's  land  bank  was  open  to  the
general  criticism  that  applies  to  all  schemes  for
the  issue  of  a  paper  currency  based  on  land
securities  ; — the  securities  are  not  speedily  and
certainly  convertible,  and  they  are  not  every-
where negotiable.     But  it  had  special  defects
of  its  own.     The  security  proposed  was  lament-
.bly  inadequate.     Its  calculations  were  drawn
i     up  on   its   projector's   curious   idea   that   the
ji    value  of  an  estate  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the
I    length  of  time  from  which  an  income  is  derived
\    from  it.     Chamberlain  off'ered,  for  example,  to
'     give  eighty  years'  purchase  for  a  rent  charge  of
£100  for  100  years,   from   property  in  land.
^The  market  value  of  the  fee  simple  in  those
I^Hfeys  would  have  been  about  twenty  years'  pur-
|^B|^e,  or  one-fourth  of  Chamberlain's  estimate.
VK^        ^OL.  I.
[Macaulay,  History  of  England,  ch.  xx.,  xxii. —
Thor.  Rogers,  First  Nine  Years  of  the  Bank  of
England  (Clar.  Press,  1887),  ch.  ii. — Anderson,
Hist,  and  Chron.  Deduction  of  Commerce,  vol.  ii.
year  1696. — Macleod  (H.  D.),  Dictionary  of
Pol.  Econ.,  gives  a  useful  list  of  his  pamphlets
(art.  "Chamberlain  ").]  J.  b.
