Strona 763 z 2651

Let us suppose, for example, that the whole circulating money of

some particular country amounted, at a particular time, to one

million sterling, that sum being then sufficient for circulating

the whole annual produce of their land and labour; let us

suppose, too, that some time thereafter, different banks and

bankers issued promissory notes payable to the bearer, to the

extent of one million, reserving in their different coffers two

hundred thousand pounds for answering occasional demands; there

would remain, therefore, in circulation, eight hundred thousand

pounds in gold and silver, and a million of bank notes, or

eighteen hundred thousand pounds of paper and money together. But

the annual produce of the land and labour of the country had

before required only one million to circulate and distribute it

to its proper consumers, and that annual produce cannot be

immediately augmented by those operations of banking. One

million, therefore, will be sufficient to circulate it after

them.