If they have
only doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if
trebled, as I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty
millions, on which they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount.
I should sooner, therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below
than above the actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary
document, (see Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other
public papers of about that date) it appears that six years ago, the
bank of England had twelve millions of pounds sterling in circulation,
which had increased to forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and
eighty-nine millions of dollars. What proportion all the other banks may
add to this, I do not know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal
it, this would give a circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight
millions, or the double of ours on a double population. But that nation
is essentially commercial, ours essentially agricultural, and needing,
therefore, less circulating medium, because the produce of the
husbandman comes but once a year, and is then partly consumed at home,
partly exchanged by barter. The dollar, which was of four shillings and
six pence sterling, was, by the same document, stated to be then six
shillings and nine pence, a depreciation of exactly fifty per cent. The
average price of wheat on the continent of Europe, at the commencement
of its present war with England, was about a French crown, of one
hundred and ten cents, the bushel.
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