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Exchequer Notes 3 Cause &c
3 Causes which cooperate in producing the credit circulation possessed by Bank notes . 1. Payable on demand. 2. — to Borrow. 3 — without trouble of indorsement 4 — in small sums — Plan 5 - on paper of & thickness convenient for circulation 6 — by a company in long & possession of the public confidence There are several circumstances which cooperate
towards giving to the Bank paper the extraordinary perfect
aptitude it possesses with respect to circulation. The
want of any of these properties or the possession of it
in an inferior degree will account pro lunto for
the inferiority of the terms upon which the Government
paper obtains possesses the degree of circulation it possesses has obtained.
So Bank Notes are made payable to Bearer on
demand.
These properties seem to be — 1. the being payable
[to the Bearer] on demand, and tra 2. the being transferable
without like coin from hand to hand without indorsement or
any other formality. 3. the being issued for such
sums as £20, £10, and now totaly even as low as £5.
4. the being impressed on paper which by its size and
thinness in point of size is neither so large as to take
up too much room nor so small as to do be liable by
its minuteness to escape observation and be lost, and in
point of thinness thickness is thin enough to bear folding without
cracking at the same time that it takes up little room
in the pocket or the pocket-book: nor is it yet so thin
but that it will bear ink to be written upon by which
means the any proprietor may put his mark upon the note
as a means of identification to enable him to vindicate make out
his property in it in case of loss. 5. Its having been
so long in possession of the market in possession of the
national confidence and that to such a degree as to be
the only paper which individuals all over the Kingdom are
universally in the habit of accepting upon the same terms as
the current coin.(a)
(a). A Bank note have other properties calculated to guard it against
Forgery: these will be spoken off a little lower down, but do not belong to the present place
