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The greater part of foreign bills of exchange must be paid in

bank money, that is, by a transfer in the books of the bank; and

the directors of the bank, they allege, are careful to keep the

whole quantity of bank money always below what this use occasions

a demand for. It is upon this account, they say, the bank money

sells for a premium, or bears an agio of four or five per cent.

above the same nominal sum of the gold and silver currency of the

country. This account of the bank of Amsterdam, however, it will

appear hereafter, is in a great measure chimerical.