358
 

CHAPTER XIV.

0?t Lord King's Thoughts on the Effects of the Bank

Restrictio7is.

CHAPTER Upon that part of Lord King's investigation, where an
^^^ attempt is made to account for the superiority of our
exports above imports in the custom-house entries, by
the remittance of silver to India, I have already com¬
mented ; and it now remains to examine the arguments,
which he has adduced to delineate the general principles
of the circulation of paper. In the conduct of this exa¬
mination, I should have been gratified to have had ir in
my power to have passed that encomium on the success
of his economical researches, which I w^as unable to
bestow in my prior observations, but the argument, as it
proceeds, will shew the little opportunity, which his
Lordship has given me of indulging such a disposition.

Notwithstanding the rapid depreciation of money, which
the table of Sir George Shuckburgh has so clearly eluci¬
dated, and which is not only admitted by every public
ecoiK.*mist, but is acknowledged by Lord King through
the v/hole of his discussion, he opens his inquiry with
observing,(a) that the position, which Dr. Adam Smith
advanced, that the quantity of paper, in any given country,
could never exceed the value of the gold and silver of
 

[a] See Lord King's Thoughts, &c. page 2.