increased in so great a proportion, during so short a period, I do not
pretend to know. If either of them has increased in this proportion, it
seems to be an effect too great to be accounted for by the sole operation of
this cause. That the trade and industry of Scotland, however, have increased
very considerably during this period, and that the banks have contributed a
good deal to this increase, cannot be doubted.

The value of the silver money which circulated in Scotland before the Union
in 1707, and which, immediately after it, was brought into the Bank of
Scotland, in order to be recoined, amounted to £411,117: 10: 9 sterling. No
account has been got of the gold coin ; but it appears from the ancient
accounts of the mint of Scotland, that the value of the gold annually coined
somewhat exceeded that of the silver. There were a good many people, too,
upon this occasion, who, from a diffidence of repayment, did not bring their
silver into the Bank of Scotland; and there was, besides, some English coin,
which was not called in. The whole value of the gold and silver, therefore,
which circulated in Scotland before the Union, cannot be estimated at less
than a million sterling. It seems to have constituted almost the whole
circulation of that country; for though the circulation of the Bank of
Scotland, which had then no rival, was considerable, it seems to have made
but a very small part of the whole. In the present times, the whole
circulation of Scotland cannot be estimated at less than two millions, of
which that part which consists in gold and silver, most probably, does not
amount to half a million. But though the circulating gold and silver of
Scotland have suffered so great a diminution during this period, its real
riches and prosperity do not appear to have suffered any. Its agriculture,
manufactures, and trade, on the contrary, the annual produce of its land and
labour, have evidently been augmented.

It is chiefly by discounting bills of exchange, that is, by advancing money