at a fifth, at a tenth, at a twentieth, and at a thirtieth, part of that
value. But how small soever the proportion which the circulating money may
bear to the whole value of the annual produce, as but a part, and frequently
but a small part, of that produce, is ever destined for the maintenance of
industry, it must always bear a very considerable proportion to that part.
When, therefore, by the substitution of paper, the gold and silver
necessary for circulation is reduced to, perhaps, a fifth part of the former
quantity, if the value of only the greater part of the other four-fifths be
added to the funds which are destined for the maintenance of industry, it
must make a very considerable addition to the quantity of that industry,
and, consequently, to the value of the annual produce of land and labour.

An operation of this kind has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty years,
been performed in Scotland, by the erection of new banking companies in
almost every considerable town, and even in some country villages. The
effects of it have been precisely those above described. The business of the
country is almost entirely carried on by means of the paper of those
different banking companies, with which purchases and payments of all kinds
are commonly made. Silver very seldom appears, except in the change of a
twenty shilling bank note, and gold still seldomer. But though the conduct
of all those different companies has not been unexceptionable, and has
accordingly required an act of parliament to regulate it, the country,
notwithstanding, has evidently derived great benefit from their trade. I
have heard it asserted, that the trade of the city of Glasgow doubled in
about fifteen years after the first erection of the banks there; and that
the trade of Scotland has more than quadrupled since the first erection of
the two public banks at Edinburgh; of which the one, called the Bank of
Scotland, was established by act of parliament in 1695, and the other,
called the Royal Bank, by royal charter in 1727. Whether the trade, either
of Scotland in general, or of the city of Glasgow in particular, has really