The cash payments crisis had a less damaging effect than the King had feared on the “public credit”, at least as it was represented in the stock market. Stocks fell; but what mattered more in the market was the amount of business, and because loans were increasing in size, business was increasing in volume. It was increasing fast for David Ricardo. The ledgers of the Bank of England1 show that by 1798 he had overtaken his father in business; and by 1800 he was a member of the Committee of Proprietors that managed the affairs of the Stock Exchange.2 Then in 1801 the cash payments crisis was succeeded by a convulsion within the Stock Exchange itself.