Pagina 762 di 2651

The same exchanges may be made, the same quantity of consumable

goods may be circulated and distributed to their proper

consumers, by means of his promissory notes, to the value of a

hundred thousand pounds, as by an equal value of gold and silver

money. Eighty thousand pounds of gold and silver, therefore, can

in this manner be spared from the circulation of the country; and

if different operations of the same kind should, at the same

time, be carried on by many different banks and bankers, the

whole circulation may thus be conducted with a fifth part only of

the gold and silver which would otherwise have been requisite.