156
chapter merchants is advanced upon the bills of the wealthiest and
^ most respectable characters of the commercial commu¬
nity; not a single note, therefore, is in circulation without
the deposit of an adequate pledge in their coffers for the
redemption of its value.
From the whole of the foregoing argument, therefore,
it is impossible to infer that their average deposit, exclu¬
sive of their ordinary receipt and expenditure, amounts to
a greater sum than ^600,000. or ^^700,000., which
they are enabled to maintain at an expense of from
j^30,ooo. to ^35,000. a year; but had their deposit
amounted, as had been conceived, to ^8,000,000. or
^10,000,000. the Directors would have ill discharged their
duty to the Company, as they would necessarily have occa¬
sioned an annual loss of ^^400,000. and ;ir50o,ooo.
If, then, it may be concluded, that th ord inary sum in
circulation in the metropolis is not to a greater amount
than j^2,ooo,ooo., and in the provincial districts than
-j^ 1,500,000., and that the average sum in detention by
private banks is not more than -ir830,ooo., nor the stores
of the Bank of England than ^^650,000., the consolidated
stock of specie throughout the whole kingdom in circula¬
tion and deposit, will not exceed the sum of five millions:
and inconsiderable as this sum may appear, consistently
with the prevailing opinion of the times, I am most con¬
fident that in every particular estimate upon which the
calculation is founded, I have exceeded the real amount.
Some severe animadversions have been passed by Lord
Liverpool upon the illicit system of melting the coin ; but
|