' And again (page 470): 'When bankers
discovered that certain projectors were trading, not with any capital
of their own, but with that which they advanced them, they endeavored
to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and greater difficulties
about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and enraged in the highest
degree those projectors. Their own distress, of which this prudent and
necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the immediate occasion, they
called the distress of the country; and this distress of the country,
they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity, and bad
conduct of the banks, which did not give a sufficiently liberal aid to
the spirited undertakings of those who exerted themselves in order to
beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was the duty of the banks,
they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time, and to as great an
extent, as they might wish to borrow.' It is, probably, the good paper
of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks being unable to
discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the risk of this
good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal interest, to
the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had rather try
trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other laborious
calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) 'That the industry of Scotland
languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the famous
Mr.
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