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By a call of fifteen per cent. in 1709, there was paid in, and

made stock, £ 656,204:1:9d.; and by another of ten per cent. in

1710, £501,448:12:11d. In consequence of those two calls,

therefore, the bank capital amounted to £ 5,559,995:14:8d.

In pursuance of the 3rd George I. c.8, the bank delivered up two

millions of exchequer Bills to be cancelled. It had at this time,

therefore, advanced to government £5,375,027:17 10d. In pursuance

of the 8th George I. c.21, the bank purchased of the South-sea

company, stock to the amount of £4,000,000: and in 1722, in

consequence of the subscriptions which it had taken in for

enabling it to make this purchase, its capital stock was

increased by £ 3,400,000. At this time, therefore, the bank had

advanced to the public £ 9,375,027 17s. 10½d.; and its capital

stock amounted only to £ 8,959,995:14:8d. It was upon this

occasion that the sum which the bank had advanced to the public,

and for which it received interest, began first to exceed its

capital stock, or the sum for which it paid a dividend to the

proprietors of bank stock; or, in other words, that the bank

began to have an undivided capital, over and above its divided

one.