278 T1IE NATURE ANJD CAUSES OF

fit from their trade. I have heard it asserted, that the trade ofthe city of Glasgow doubled in about fifteen years after thefirst erection of the banks there ; and that the trade of Scotland has more than quadrupled since the first erection of the twopublic banks at Edinburgh, of which the one, called The Bankof Scotland , was established by act of parliament in 1G95; theother, called The Royal Bank , by royal charter in 1727.Whether' the trade, either of Scotland in general, or of thecity of Glasgow in particular, has really increased in so greataproportion, during so shortaperiod, 1 do not pretend to know.If either of them has increased in this proportion, it seems tobe an effect too great to be accounted for by the sole operationof this cause. That the trade and industry of Scotland , how-ever, have increased very considerably during this period, andthat the banks have contributed a good deal to this increase,cannot be doubted.

The value of the silver money which circulated in Scot-land before the Union, in 1707, and which, immediatelyafter it, was brought into the bank of Scotland , in order tobe re-coined, amounted to 411,117/. 10*'. Qd. sterling. Noaccount has been got of the gold coin; but it appears fromthe ancient accounts of the mint of Scotland , that the valueof the gold annually coined somewhat exceeded that of thesilver.* There were a good many people too upon this oc-casion, who, from a diffidence of repayment, did not bringtheir silver into the bank of Scotland : and there was, besides,some English coin, which was not called in. The tvholevalue of the gold and silver, therefore, which circulated inScotland before the Union, cannot be estimated at less thana million sterling. It seems to have constituted almost thewhole circulation of that country; for though the circulationof the bank of Scotland , which had then no rival, was con-siderable, it seems to have made but a very small part of thewhole. In the present times the whole circulation of Scot-land cannot be estimated at less than two millions, of whichthat part which consists in gold and silver, most probably,does not amount to hall a million. But though the circula-ting gold and silver of Scotland have suffered so great a di-munition during this period, its real riches and prosperity donot appear to have suffered any. Its agriculture, manufac-tures, and trade, on the contrary, the annual produce of itsland and labour, have evidently been augmented.

* See Ruddinmn’s Preface to Anderson's Diplomats, &c. Scoti& \