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3 + 1581
Ch XII
millions above spoken of to eight millions.
But it is on the quantity mass of money ready to be
transferred to those to whom it is due, or by
whom it is otherwise expected, whether out of the
mass portion which is kept in general circulation in small masses and
from by which serves as a vehicle for income, or
out of the mass portion kept up on large masses, in the
shape of capital, that the body of commercial money
in their capacity of debtors, depend for their ability
to fulfill the aggregate mass of their engagements t.
If then the influx of money in the course of the
year into commercial hands be thus diminished
by the amount of eight millions, in the score of
income and capital taken together, eight millions
or some such large sum, will be the amount of engagements
broken, in the course of that year, by
reason of the defalcation of a single millions
worth of Bank paper, (unless in so far as the deficiency
may have been made up from other sources):
and to this amount will the que commercial wealth
of the country have suffered — not only in point of
quantity, but in point of security.
I speak of security in contradistinction to actual to quantity: i:e:
wealth to a liquidated amount: for, wha if, to the above
liquidated loss, be added the loss by failure following
upon failure, in consequence of the shock given to security,
the ultimate loss may rise, above the supposed eight
millions, to an indefinite amount.
The
The text is continued at p. 160. There is no page 159.