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By means of those cash accounts, every merchant can, without

imprudence, carry on a greater trade than he otherwise could do.

If there are two merchants, one in London and the other in

Edinburgh, who employ equal stocks in the same branch of trade,

the Edinburgh merchant can, without imprudence, carry on a

greater trade, and give employment to a greater number of people,

than the London merchant. The London merchant must always keep by

him a considerable sum of money, either in his own coffers, or in

those of his banker, who gives him no interest for it, in order

to answer the demands continually coming upon him for payment of

the goods which he purchases upon credit. Let the ordinary amount

of this sum be supposed five hundred pounds; the value of the

goods in his warehouse must always be less, by five hundred

pounds, than it would have been, had he not been obliged to keep

such a sum unemployed.