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increasing; and; when it stopped; amounted to upwards of six

hundred thousand pounds。 This bank; therefore; had; in little

more than the course of two years; advanced to different people

upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds at five per cent。 Upon

the two hundred thousand pounds which it circulated in bank

notes; this five per cent might; perhaps; be considered as clear

gain; without any other deduction besides the expense of

management。 But upon upwards of six hundred thousand pounds; for

which it was continually drawing bills of exchange upon London;

it was paying; in the way of interest and commission; upwards of

eight per cent; and was consequently losing more than three per

cent upon more than three…fourths of all its dealings。

     The operations of this bank seem to have produced effects

quite opposite to those which were intended by the particular

persons who planned and directed it。 They seem to have intended

to support the spirited undertakings; for as such they considered

them; which were at that time carrying on in different parts of

the country; and at the same time; by drawing the whole banking

business to themselves; to supplant all the other Scotch banks;

particularly those established in Edinburgh; whose backwardness

in discounting bills of exchange had given some offence。 This

bank; no doubt; gave some temporary relief to those projectors;

and enabled them to carry on their projects for about two years

longer than they could otherwise have done。 But it thereby only

enabled them to get so much deeper into debt; so that; when ruin

came; it fell so much the heavier both upon them and upon their

creditors。 The operations of this bank; therefore; instead of

relieving; in reality aggravated in the long…run the distress

which those projectors had brought both upon themselves and upon

their country。 It would have been much better for themselves;

their creditors; and their country; had the greater part of them

been obliged to stop two years sooner than they actually did。 The

temporary relief; however; which this bank afforded to those

projectors; proved a real and permanent relief to the other

Scotch banks。 All the dealers in circulating bills of exchange;

which those other banks had become so backward in discounting;

had recourse to this new bank; where they were received with open

arms。 Those other banks; therefore; were enabled to get very

easily out of that fatal circle; from which they could not

otherwise have disengaged themselves without incurring a

considerable loss; and perhaps too even some degree of discredit。

     In the long…run; therefore; the operations of this bank

increased the real distress of the country which it meant to

relieve; and effectually relieved from a very great distress

those rivals whom it meant to supplant。

     At the first setting out of this bank; it was the opinion of

some people that how fast soever its coffers might be emptied; it

might easily replenish them by raising money upon the securities

of those to whom it had advanced its paper。 Experience; I

believe; soon convinced them that this method of raising money

was by much too slow to answer their purpose; and that coffers

which originally were so ill filled; and which emptied themselves

so very fast; could be replenished by no other expedient but the

ruinous one of drawing bills upon London; and when they became

due; paying them by other drafts upon the same place with

accumulated interest and commission。 But though they had been

able by this method to raise money as fast as they wanted it;

yet; instead of making a profit; they must have suffered a loss

by every such operation; so that in the long…run they must have

ruined themselves as a mercantile company; though; perhaps; not

so soon as by the more expensive practice of drawing and

redrawing。 They could still have made nothing by the interest of

the paper; which; being over and above what the circulation of

the country could absorb and employ; returned upon them; in order

to be exchanged for gold and silver; as fast as they issued it;

and for the payment of which they were themselves continually

obliged to borrow money。 On the contrary; the whole expense of

this borrowing; of employing agents to look out for people who

had money to lend; of negotiating with those people; and of

drawing the proper bond or assignment; must have fallen upon

them; and have been so much clear loss upon the balance of their

accounts。 The project of replenishing their coffers in this

manner may be compared to that of a man who had a water…pond from

which a stream was continually running out; and into which no

stream was continually running; but who proposed to keep it

always equally full by employing a number of people to go

continually with buckets to a well at some miles distance in

order to bring water to replenish it。

     But though this operation had proved not only practicable

but profitable to the bank as a mercantile company; yet the

country could have derived no benefit from it; but; on the

contrary; must have suffered a very considerable loss by it。 This

operation could not augment in the smallest degree the quantity

of money to be lent。 It could only have erected this bank into a

sort of general loan office for the whole country。 Those who

wanted to borrow must have applied to this bank instead of

applying to the private persons who had lent it their money。 But

a bank which lends money perhaps to five hundred different

people; the greater part of whom its directors can know very

little about; is not likely to be more judicious in the choice of

its debtors than a private person who lends out his money among a

few people whom he knows; and in whose sober and frugal conduct

he thinks he has good reason to confide。 The debtors of such a

bank as that whose conduct I have been giving some account of

were likely; the greater part of them; to be chimerical

projectors; the drawers and re…drawers of circulating bills of

exchange; who would employ the money in extravagant undertakings;

which; with all the assistance that could be given them; they

would probably never be able to complete; and which; if they

should be completed; would never repay the expense which they had

really cost; would never afford a fund capable of maintaining a

quantity of labour equal to that which had been employed about

them。 The sober and frugal debtors of private persons; on the

contrary; would be more likely to employ the money borrowed in

sober undertakings which were proportioned to their capitals; and

which; though they might have less of the grand and the

marvellous; would have more of the solid and the profitable;

which would repay with a large profit whatever had been laid out

upon them; and which would thus afford a fund capable of

maintaining a much greater quantity of labour than that which had

been employed about them。 The success of this operation;

therefore; without increasing in the smallest degree the capital

of the country; would only have transferred a great part of it

from prudent and profitable to imprudent and unprofitable

undertakings。

     That the industry of Scotland languished for want of money

to employ it was the opinion of the famous Mr。 Law。 By

establishing a bank of a particular kind; which he seems to have

imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of

all the lands in the country; he proposed to remedy this want of

money。 The Parliament of Scotland; when he first proposed his

project; did not think proper to adopt it。 It was afterwards

adopted; with some variations; by the Duke of Orleans; at that

time Regent of France。 The idea of the possibility of multiplying

paper to almost any extent was the real foundation of what is

called the Mississippi scheme; the most extravagant project both

of banking and stock…jobbing that; perhaps; the world ever saw。

The different operations of this scheme are explained so fully;

so clearly; and with so much order and distinctness; by Mr。 du

Verney; in his Examination of the Political Reflections upon

Commerce and Finances of Mr。 du Tot; that I shall not give any

account of them。 The principles upon which it was founded are

explained by Mr。 Law himself; in a discourse concerning money and

trade; which he published in Scotland when he first proposed his

project。 The splendid but visionary ideas which are set forth in

that and some other works upon the same principles still continue

to make an impression upon many people; and have; perhaps; in

part; contributed to that excess of banking which has of late

been complained of both in Scotland and in other places。

     The Bank of England is the greatest bank of circulation in

Europe。 It was incorporated; in pursuance of an act of

Parliament; by a charter under the Great Seal; dated the 27th of

July; 1694。 It at that time advanced to government the sum of one

million two hundred thousand pounds; for an annuity of one

hundred thousand pounds; or for L96;000 a year interest; at the

rate of eight per cent; and L4000 a year

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