Peter King, 7th Baron King of Ockham (1775-1833), Authority on currency

Sitter in 7 portraits
Peter King succeeded to the title in 1793 and took his seat in the House of Lords. Britain's war with France was extremely costly, and in 1797, the Bank Restriction Act was passed, freeing the almost-bankrupt Bank of England from converting bank notes into currency. King is best remembered for the detailed study he made of the currency issue, published as Thoughts on the Effects of the Bank Restrictions (1804). He argued that the Act would cause the value of paper money to depreciate; indeed, by the end of the war in 1815, the British currency had depreciated by almost a third. King sat on the Lords' committee on cash payments in 1819 and took part in the debates on it in 1820.