Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/85

 soon as trade became slack; that is, as soon as the need that had called them forth ceased to operate.

In England an immense amount of trade is carried on without the exchange of coin, by means of the various forms of credit, which are all, in one way or another, promises to pay. In the London clearing-house, the place where the cheques drawn on different banks are daily exchanged for each other, as much as 2,000,000,000l. worth of cheques are exchanged in the course of a single year, without the transfer of one penny of money: that is to say, that buying or selling to the amount of 2,000,000,000l. takes place in one year in England by means of cheques alone, without the transfer of any gold or silver coin whatever. This substitute for money has the same effect upon prices as if a large addition were made to the money in circulation. In the same way bills of exchange (which are promises to pay, at a certain date, made by one merchant to another), and bank-notes (which are promises to pay on demand made by the banker to the