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Art 11 Prisons 7 1
Annuity Notes
Principal
Small money
A piece of The addition which a given note <add>mass of</add> money whether metallic money
or paper money adds makes to the mass of national
wealth in the compass of a year is as the
number of times which in the course of that
year it is paid at into a pair of any hand hands
for productive labour performed by that hand.
If this be true, it will follow that though
to each individual possessor twelve four and four &
twenty halfpence twenty shillings are worth no more than
one shilling, one guinea yet to the community at large
they are worth a good deal more — probably
several times as much. +
+ It does not follow that the national wealth can be increased ad libitum by the increase of small money — absolute or comparative
Small money will do whatever is done
by large money: but large money will not do
whatever is done by small. Ten millions
in Bank Notes from a thousand pound down
to £1 are worth ten millions: ten millions
in five notes of two million each would
not as between individual and individual
be worth 0d: now though the
Bank could pay it, no individual could find
value to give for any such note.
Reduction of the size of the sum promised
by a piece of paper money has a natural tendency
to raise the credit of such money: since in
proportion to the reduction it opens the market to
a multitude of purchasers who either would not
resort to it before.