Today is the Summer Bank Holiday…
In the UK, on this day (Aug 25th) it is the Summer Bank Holiday (also known as the August Bank Holiday). You see, sometime around 1703, Sir Isaac Newton proposed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer take from the calendar certain days intended for merrymaking and hold them in trust and treated like a hard commodity. Though rocky at first — resulting in some unfortunate losses in the first few years — they were able to establish a highly secret futures exchange based on free time. While developing quite a balance, the powers that be say fit to pay a “free time” dividend periodically. By 1833 they were paying out as much as 30 days per year.
Sadly 1834 was year that Sir Reginald “Bigboy” Carter (OBE, DSO, EIEIO) was placed in charge of the secret market. In his unsure hands England’s hard earned pool of free time was nearly wiped out completely. Indeed to cover up this disaster they had to create the Bank of England, borrow some free time from Sweden, and use the loaned time to pay out only 4 times per year. Slowly the fund was grown again.
Until WWII when UK War Savings Certificates were actually backed by the secret fund. There was much worry at the time that this could bankrupt the British people forever, but it had the added benefit that if the Nazi’s captured the UK there would be one less treasure for them to capture. However since so little free time was actually accrued, this left the UK with a larger surplus than before the war began.
Worried about the size of the fund, and how large it could grow if compound interest were applied, all trading in free time was suspended and the port Churchill government created a sanctioned list of days to start paying off the balance, leading us to the 8 (9 in Scotland) they have today…
