Page:The Real Cause of the High Price of Gold Bullion.djvu/10

 In the next place, I find from the late Lord Liverpool's Treatise upon Coins, that his Lordship estimates the value of the gold coin circulating in his Majesty's dominions, at 30 millions; and if we allot 5 millions to Ireland, the gold coin circulating in Great Britain before the Restriction Act, was 25 millions, and about 10 millions of Bank Notes, which I believe exceeds the amount of Bank Notes and Coin now in circulation or in the Bank. I have no precise data for knowing or conjecturing what was the amount of private bank notes in circulation before the Bank Restriction; but it is said to amount to upwards of 25 millions at present;—so that whatever increase there is in our circulating medium, it must arise, according to this statement, from the increased circulation of the private banks, and not from the increased issues of the Bank of England. The Committee of 1810 adverted indeed to the state and to the issues of the private banks, which appeared to have increased to the amount of 3,000,000 l. within a short period antecedent. But they give us not any estimate of their amount at the time nor of their amount before the Restriction Act. But surely when they decided in limine that the rise of Gold and the fall of Exchanges were solely attributable to excessive Issues of Bank Paper, they should have entered into the subject more minutely—they should have compared the whole circulation before that act, with the whole circulation in 1810; and then, after computing the increased income of the kingdom, and the augmented demand for currency from increased taxes, supplies, and commerce, it should have drawn a regular comparison