The  summary  of  this  process  of  pajrment  is,  that  merchants
purchase  goods,  and  manufacturers  purchase  supplies,  with  their
individual  notes  or  bills,  which  are  exchanged  for  bank-notes ;
and  these  bank-notes  are  either  sought  after  and  obtained  by
the  debtors  of  the  bank,  to  be  returned  in  payment  of  their
liabilities,  or  they  pay  the  bank  in  some  medium  which  will
redeem  the  notes. The  goods  sold  create  the  paper  discounted,
and  sold  again  they  furnish  the  means  to  withdraw  the  paper
discounted,  and  the  issues  of  the  bank :  or,  more  generally,  the
continual  operation  of  trade  constantly  originates  new  paper,
and  thence  new  issues  from  the  banks,  which  furnish  the
medium  in  which  the  individual  paper  is  continually  paid. The
manufacturer,  merchant  and  farmer  purchase  stock  in  one  period
of  the  year,  for  which  they  give  their  notes,  which  the  holders
convert  into  bank-notes. In  another  period  they  sell  and  create
paper,  which  is  applied  to  meet  their  engagements. Thus  goods
are  bought  and  sold,  or  produced  and  sold,  until  the  distribution
is  complete,  and  merchant  and  producer  have  received  and
issued  paper  until  it  is  evident,  in  the  regular  routine  of  their
business,  that  it  supplies  the  means  of  its  continuance. Every
such  business  man,  in  the  course  of  a  year,  issues  his  own  notes
to  a  certain  amount ;  ho  receives,  also,  the  notes  of  others  to  a
certain  amount ;  ho  requires  some  facility  to  set-off  the  notes  he
receives  against  those  he  has  given. The  bank  furnishes  that
facility  in  several  ways. The  debtor  cannot  directly  exchange
the  individual  notes  issued  to  him  for  those  he  issues,  but  he  can


NOT    DEPENDENT    UPON    SPECIE. 287

conTert  those  he  receives  into  bank-notes,  which  will  be  received
in  payment  for,  or  exchange  for  his  paper. The  bank  gives
nothing  but  bank-notes,  or  bank  credits,  for  the  paper  it  dis-
counts; it  requires  nothing  for  payment  but  bank  credits,  or
bank-notes. The  debtor  does  not  obtain  this  facility  without  pay-
ing for  it ;  he  must  purchase  the  bank-notes,  and  he  does  this
not  with  money  or  coins  necessarily,  but  with  business  paper
received,  perhaps,  for  the  very  goods  by  purchase  of  which  his
debt  was  created. 