The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-06-01 00:00:00

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sometimes reaching one notteacti pounds, and oceasionally• larger
awn.
The Bank allows the party having the cash credit to liquidate
any portion of his debt to the Bank, at any time that may suit hill
'convenience, and reserver to itself the power of cancelling, when-
ever It shall think fit, the credit granted.
With the view of amen •ining the tival amount of the paper
carreney of Scotland at different periods, and of estimation des
variations in its amount, a letter wan addressed by the Chairman-
of the Committee to each Bank In Scotland, requesting informa-
tion as to the amount of notes issued below and above five pounds,
and outstanding at certain given periods.
The Banks were informed that this communication would be
considered by the Chai, loan ea one entirely of a confidential aa.
tore; that he would make no disclosure of the amount of the
bares of any single Bank, but collect from the returns the gene_
sal result, and present that result to the Committee.
An answer has been received to this communication frotp all the
Banks in Scotland, with one exception. Sono of the Banks that
have made returns have not been able to distinguish :be notes unJer
and above five pound.; where that distinction has not been gnu",
the proportions have been estimated by a computation framed upon
the proportions that appear in the returns of those Banks whirls
were enabled to distinguish their notes below five poutyde from
those above that sum, and the result is stated in red ink.
Three of the Banks from which eeturns have been received have
omitted to state the amount of their present circulation r that cir-
culation has been taken, to the subjoined general estimate, on an
average between the highest and the lowest amount of the aggre-
gate circulation of those Batiks raq.ectircly during 1125.
Subject to the foregoing explanation, the following is the gene.
cal account, deduced from the return made .ty each Bank, of th• 1m;
per circulation of Scotland at the differeot periods referred to In that
acasunt.
An ACCOUNT of the Amount of Bankers' Notes eirculatlog in
Scotland. showing the highest and Luweat Atnoont In the
Years 1815, 1821, 1823, 1824, and 1825; and aloof the Amount
I in Circulation at the West period in 11326 to which the Aceneek
I can be made op ; distinguishing the Amount of Notes under Si,
from those of a and upwards.
1815—highest Amount -6/. and upwards, 1,365,198 ; under 52,
9,185,480 ; total. 3,551.496. Lowest Amothit--51, and upwards,
908.388 ; under 51., 1,868.824 ; total, 2.776.830.
1821.-Highest A mount-il. sad upwards, 1,309,536 I wader
52, 1,935.224 ; total, 3 244 759. Lowest Amount-51. and up-
wards, 963 143 ; under 52, 1.597,302 ; total, 2,5160,445.
1023.--Highest Amount -.41. and Imp aids, 4,398.390; ander
52, 2,065,672 ; total, 3,462,012. ',0w1% Amount-../. and up-
wards, 1,0(18.805 ; under 51., 1,706 631 ;iptal, 2.713,238.
11124.-Highest Amount-5/. and upward., 1,701.1964 tinder
61., 2,2'96,492: total, 3,997,688. Lowest Amount-41, and up-
wards. 1,095.190 ; under 52, 1,764,825 total, 2.860.013.
1828.-Highest Amount-5/. and upwards, 1,946.7214 under
51., 2,7:36,491 ; total, 4.683,212. Lowest Aotount--51. and up-
wards, 1.323.451 ; under 51., 2,110.648 ' • total, 3,434,099.0
Amount of Notes at Present in Circulatinn.-Armunt of Banks
which have made the return--51. and upwards, 1,125.743: under
51., 1,903,252 ; total, 3,028,995. Three of the Banks who have
made returns have omitted to state the amount of their present
circulation. The amount of their aggregate circulation during
1825 was, at the highest, 311,646 ; at the lowest, 248.441 the
average of these two sums is therefore taken as the potable au.ount
of their present circulation-51. and upwards, 104,195 ; tinder Si,
173,992 ; total, 280,0117. Probable Amount at present In Ciretals.
tion-51. and upwards, 1,229,838 ; under 51., 2,079,244 ; lowa,
3,309,082. _ _

Two of the Banking Companies in Scotland have made DO Re-
turn whatever.
It will be seen from the above Return, that the present amount
of the per currency of Scotland, being in fact (with the excep-
tion of si palver)peaily the whole currency of that country, is owns-
Fluted to be three million three hundred and nine thousand pounds,
of which two million and seventy-nine thousand poundsare m mites
below five pounds.
It has been calculated by Dr. Adam Smith, that the amount of
gold and silver coin current in Scotland before the Union, and then
constituting nearly the whole circulation of the country, was about
one million sterling. lie observes, that the amount of silver coin!
brought Into the Bank of Scotland for the purpose of being re-'
coined, immediately after the Union, was four hundred and eleven.
thousand pounds sterling ; and that it appears from the ancient re-
cords of the Mint in Scotland, that the valise of the gold annually
coined somewhat exceeded the annual coinage of the silver. H•
calculates, therefore, the total amount of gold and silver in circula-
tion, about the year 1707, at one million.
The same authority, speaking of the year 1776, ("dimities the
whole circulation of Scotland at that time to be about two Minkel!,
" of which," he observes, " that pars which consists in gold and
silver most probably does not amount to half a million."
Your Committee trust that they have not improperly out/gapped
the limits of their duty, in submitting to the House this brief re-
view of the laws by which the business of banking in Scotland ie re-
gulated, and of themes]. in which it is at present conducted; it le
a subject not adverted to in the Reports of previous Committee,
and it appeared therefore to your Committee that it might 'be con-
venient to prefix • general account of the banking establishment*
and currency of Scotland to their observations on that imponans
question, which was the more immediate object of the reference
made to your Committee.
They consider that question in substance to be, whether Scotland
shall be permitted to retain the privilege which she has hitherto
had, of maintaining a paper circulation for sums between twenty
shillings and five pounds : or whether she shall be required at
some period, to be now ascertained by law, to provide, in the
sante manner in which England has been called upon to provide, a.
metallic currency ?
Although the promissory notes issued in Scotland are convertible
into gold at the will of tne holder, yet it appears to your Committee
to be proved by experience, that the permission to issue note. aim
amount sufficiently low to perform the office of coin will practically
exclude that coin from circulation, notwithstanding that such notes
may lie payable at the will of the bolder ; and it must be maintain
that under the operation of the law, now applicable to the two
countries respectively, England will, after the year lii29, have
metallic circulation for the payment of all sums below five pouods.
and Scotland a circulation of paper alone, for all payments of net
loss than twenty shillings..
Whether this state of things can be allowed to exist consistently,
with equal justice to the inhabitant, of the two countries--whether
the stability of the present system of paper currency in Scotland
can be insured if coin be not in circulation as its basis—whether
that system can co-exist with a metallic currency in England, with.
out deranging the currency of this country, are the important con.
a•derations which must be maturely weighed before a final decision
can be satisfactorily pronounced.
The presumption, on general principles. appears to your Cow-
mlttee to be in faiour of an extension to other pars of the United
Kingdom of the rule which it has been determined to apply to
England. Provisiob would thus be mad, for equally apportioning
among all parts of the empire that charge. which is inseparable in
the first Maumee from the substitution of a metallic in the room of
• paper currency. The wider the field over which a metallic cir-
culation is spread, the greater will be the security against its dis-
turbance from the operation of internal or external causes, and the
lighter on any particular part will be the pressure incidental to •
sudden contraction of currency. The business of banking, and
probably of all other commercial transactions connected with it,
would be conducted on a more equal footing, in respect to Profit,
under a system of currency common to all parts of the empne, than
under one which should confine to particular portions of it the pet.
vilege of issudtg a certain description of paper. In proportion as
the offence of coining shall be found to be more difficult of aeon.
Lion, and to be less frequently committed than the Ohms of for.
gery In that degree, upon moral considerations, will a metalliccirculation be preferable to one of paper.
These appear to your Committee to be the principal MOMS in
favour of extending to Scotland • system of currency which the
Legislature has resolved to re-establish in England, reasons which
seem decisive in favour of such an extension, unless they can be
countervailed by the proof of some peculiar circumstances in the
condition of Scotland, justifying a special exception in her behalf,
and by a strong presumption that such an. exception can be ad-
mitted without prejudice to the interests ofother parte of the empire.
The main object of the witnesses from Scotland, who were ess..
mined before your Cutnmittee, bas been to prove the claim of Scot-
land to this exception. Their opinion, with very slight, shades of
difference, is decidedly adverse to any change in the laws which
have an lung regulated the Mule of promissory notes its that coun-
try. In estimating, however, the weight due to their opinions a.
authority, it ought to be borne In mind that a great part of the wit.
nesses from Scotland were gentlemen immediately connected with
some of the banks in that country, subject, therefore, to the pre.
possessions which naturally spring from a long connexion with eita
isting establishments, and from a warm interest in the continuance
of their prosperity.
It is not improbable that, had the time permitted it, your Com-
mittee would have extended still further inquiries ; and they deem
it on that account the more incumbent upon them to state the .ge-
neral nature of the testimony upon which they hare come to their
present conclusions.
The witnesses examined by your Committee, with reference sit
the state of the circulation in Scotland, were seven gentletests
standing in various relations to some of the Banks in Scotland :
Mr. Kirkman Finlay, a merchant at rilaagow,
Mr. Gibson Craig, a writer to the signet in Edinburgh,
Mr. Iladrlen, a manufacturer in Aberdeen, •
Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, factor to the Duke of Argyle.
Mr. Gladstone, a Member of the House,
Mr. Moss, a banker of Liverpool • and '
Mr. Birkbeek.'a banker in the {treat Riding of Yorkshire,
we examined as tu the manner of oonducting the business offbeat.
log and commercial aransactions connected with it, in Lanelabires
Mr. Gladstone was enabled also to give evidence upon some potato
relating to the circulation and commerce of Scotland. •
Three of the Directors of the Bank of England gave the* em.
dente chiefly as to the bearing which • paper circulation in &Worst
might have upon the interests Of the Bank of England, alter the
roestablishment of • metallic currency in this country.
The grounds relied upon by the witnesses from Setwiehd, to
prove that it is neither necessary nor expedient to niter dm laws
which permit the issue of small notes in that country, appear to be
the following :
That these laws. so far as they relate to notes between the
sum. of twenty shillings and fin. pounds, payable on demon.
have remained unaltered since the first Institution of bookie, in
Scotland.

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