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The gold and silver money which circulates in any country, and by

means of which, the produce of its land and labour is annually

circulated and distributed to the proper consumers, is, in the

same manner as the ready money of the dealer, all dead stock. It

is a very valuable part of the capital of the country, which

produces nothing to the country. The judicious operations of

banking, by substituting paper in the room of a great part of

this gold and silver, enable the country to convert a great part

of this dead stock into active and productive stock; into stock

which produces something to the country. The gold and silver

money which circulates in any country may very properly be

compared to a highway, which, while it circulates and carries to

market all the grass and corn of the country, produces itself not

a single pile of either.