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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

But small sums circulate much faster than large ones. Ashilling changes masters more frequently than a guinea, anda halfpenny more frequently than a shilling. Though theannual purchases of all the consumers, therefore, are at leastequal in value to those of all the dealers, they can generallybe transacted with a much smaller quantity of money; thesame pieces, by a more rapid circulation, serving as the in-strument of many more purchases of the one kind than ofthe other.

Paper money may be so regulated, as either to confine it-self very much to the circulation between the different dealers,or to extend itself likewise to a great part of that between thedealers and the consumers. Where no bank notes are cir-culated under ten pounds value, as in London , paper moneyconfines itself very much to the circulation between the deal-ers. When a ten pound bank note comes into the hands of aconsumer, he is generally obliged to change it at the first shopwhere he has occasion to purchase five shillings worth ofgoods; so that it often returns into the hands of a dealer,before the consumer hath spent the fortieth part of themoney. Where bank notes are issued for so small sums astwenty shillings, as in Scotland , paper money extends itselfto a considerable part of the circulation between dealers andconsumers. Before the act of parliament which put a stopto the circulation of ten and five shilling notes, it filled a still i

greater part of that circulation. In the currencies of North I

America, paper was commonly issued for so small a sum asa shilling, and filled almost the whole of that circulation.

In some paper currencies of Yorkshire , it was issued even for

so small a sum as a sixpence. I

Where the issuing of bank notes for such very small sumsis allowed and commonly practised, many mean people areboth enabled and encouraged to become bankers. A personwhose promissory note for five pounds, or even for twentyshillings, would be rejected by every body, will get it to be j

received without scruple when it is issued for so small a sum >

as a sixpence. But the frequent bankruptcies to which suchbeggarly bankers must be liable, may occasion a very con-siderable inconveniency, and sometimes even a very greatcalamity, to many poor people who had received their notesin payment.

It were better, perhaps, that no bank notes were issued inany part of the kingdom for a smaller sum than five pounds.

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