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Let us suppose that all the paper of a particular bank, which the

circulation of the country can easily absorb and employ, amounts

exactly to forty thousand pounds, and that, for answering

occasional demands, this bank is obliged to keep at all times in

its coffers ten thousand pounds in gold and silver. Should this

bank attempt to circulate forty-four thousand pounds, the four

thousand pounds which are over and above what the circulation can

easily absorb and employ, will return upon it almost as fast as

they are issued. For answering occasional demands, therefore,

this bank ought to keep at all times in its coffers, not eleven

thousand pounds only, but fourteen thousand pounds. It will thus

gain nothing by the interest of the four thousand pounds

excessive circulation; and it will lose the whole expense of

continually collecting four thousand pounds in gold and silver,

which will be continually going out of its coffers as fast as

they are brought into them.