THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.
311
If bankers are restrained from issuing any circulating banknotes, or notes payable to the bearer, for less than a certainsum ; and if they are subjected to the obligation of an imme-diate and unconditional payment of such bank notes as soonas presented, their trade may, witli safety to the public, berendered in all other respects perfectly free. The late mul-tiplication of banking companies in both parts of the unitedkingdom, an event by which many people have been muchalarmed, instead of diminishing, increases the security of thepublic. It obliges all of them to be more circumspect intheir conduct, and, by not extending their currency beyondits due proportion to their cash, to guard themselves againstthose malicious runs, which the rivalsliip of so many compe-titors is always ready to bring upon them. It restrains thecirculation of each particular company within a narrower cir-cle, and reduces their circulating notes to a smaller number.By dividing the whole circulation into a greater number otparts, the failure of any one company, an accident which, inthe course of things, must sometimes happen, becomes of lessconsequence to the public. This free competition too obligesall bankers to be more liberal in their dealings with their cus-tomers, lest their rivals should carry them away. In general,if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advan-tageous to the public, the freer and more general the com-petition, it will always be the more so.
CHAP. III.
Of the Accumulation of Capital , or of productiveand unproductive Labour.
There is one sort of labour which adds to the value of thesubject upon which it is bestowed: there is another whichhas no such effect. The former, as it produces a value, maybe called productive; the latter, unproductive* labour. Thusthe labour of a manufacturer adds, generally, to the value ofthe materials which he works upon, that of his own mainte-nance, and of his master’s profit. The labour of a menialservant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him byhis master, he, in reality, costs him no expense, the value of