Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/181

157&#93; BAN land is considered as equal to that or" the British Government ; for, before its creditors can sustain any injury, all that it has advanced to the public must be lost. At Edinburgh, there are two public banks ; the one, called the Bank of Scotland, was established by ad of parliament in 1605 ; the other, denominated the Royal Bank, was instituted by charter, in 1/27- Private banking companies have also, within these thirty years, been formed in almost every considerable town in Great Britain ; their pur- chases and payments of all kinds are made by notes, and thus the country business is in a great de- gree carried on by paper currency. It is almost gem li ;ved, that the community at large has derived considerable benefit from this arti- ficial method of increasing the cir- culating • a proposition, the truth or fallacy of which it would not be easy to demonstrate. There is another kind of Banks, which are instituted wholly upon the public account, and are < Banks of Deposit : their nan not generally understood ; but their object is to reform the cur- rency which may at any time be worn, clipped, or otherwise re. below its standard value. Such were the banks of Venice. Genoa, Amsterdam, Hamburgh, &c, when originally established ; the last in particular, being always obliged to pay in good money, according to the standard of th : State. As the cash of such banks was more va- luable than the common currency of the country, it necessarily bore nn agio, or an additional per cent- age, in proportion as the currency was supposed to be more or less depreciated. Thus the agio of the bank of Hamburgh, winch is said B AN ['57 to vary from fourteen to twenty per cent., constitutes the supposed difference between the standard money of the State, and the dipt, worn, and debased currency pour- ed in from the neighbouring coun- tries. BANK-FENCE, in rural econo- my, signifies theinclosure of ground with an artificial bank. In places where flat stones cannot be pro- cured, the most durable and ad- vantageous method of fencing in arable or pasture lands, is with turf or green sods, about five or six inches thick ; the foundation five feet wide ; the middle fdled up with earth ; the top about three feet broad, and planted with pro- per shrubs or dwarf-wood. As every agriculturist is acquainted with the manner of constructing such fences, we shall only re- mark, that they are in many re- to the common s ; because the latter, with tnputation were made throughout the British Era- ■ cover an almost incredible quantity of soil, while they neidier afford sufficient shelter for cattle, nor can the herbage growing con- tiguous to them, be compared to that generally produced on the sloping sides of banks, where net- tles and other aquatic weeds would not obstruct the vegetation of the more useful plants. It is, how- ever, to be regretted, that manual labour in this country is at present so very expensive, that few form- ers, excepting those who hoard up their grain, and wait for die maxi- mum, or highest price, are ( inclined or able, to defray the first and unavoidable expence connect- ed with the system of hunk-fencing. A subject of such extensive im- portance, we humbly conceive, is entitled