It makes an immense profit, but then its capital is immense too.

In fact, the Bank of England suffers under two difficulties.

Being much older than the other joint stock banks, it belongs to a less profitable era.

When it was founded, banks looked rather to the profit on their own capital, and to the gains of note issue than to the use of deposits.
The first relations with the State were more like those of a finance company than of a bank, as we now think of banking.

If the Bank had not made loans to the Government, which we should now think dubious, the Bank would not have existed, for the Government would never have permitted it.