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294 Amsterdam was a bank of deposit, and the credit on its books was thought to be rigorously proportioned with the treasures in its coffers. This was indeed the spirit of the institution; for though the vulgar idea was unfounded, that no money once deposited in this bank could ever afterwards be withdrawn, it invariably professed to keep in its repositories a quantity of money or bullion equal to the sums for which credit was given on its books. In 1672, when the forces of Lewis XIV. almost thundered at the gates of Amsterdam, and the republic was filled with consternation, all demands on the bank were honourably and instantaneously discharged, and the proofs of its solvency ostentatiously displayed.

From that period, till again in 1795 the armies of France hovered on the frontiers of the republic, the bank of Amsterdam enjoyed an almost uninterrupted course of commercial confidence. The magistrates of various parties, to whose integrity the direction of the bank was successively intrusted, never accused their predecessors of any improper