Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1816-12-27


| find their way back asain or rather two
streams would exist at Me same time, one
| flowing fioD, and the other towa,.ds us and
thus, at all times duriag. smch period. the
bank could with safety to itself continue
its payments mspecle. But war takes
place and our commerce is interrup;ed-
The Chesapeake is blockaded, and the
coasting trade so interrupted, that our
produce can find no vent-At the same
time, the northern ports, which nature has
rendered less easy TO occlude, remain o.
pen, to receive into their warehouses arti-
cles Of merchandise, of easy transpor-
tation, which habit has made almost es-
sential to us. We OF course become the
debtor state, to the full amount of our inn
ports, because we have no means OF bal
ancing the account by our Wheat, our
Corn and our Tobacco, which are too
bulky TO bear the expence of land-carri-
aye. This debt can ultimately only be
paid by our bank-notes or by specie; and
NAV be paid with either, so long as our
notes are readily convertible into specie.
But as these notes will no longer be i'll
demand abroad, to assist i'll paving for
our produce, they will be received only
for the purpose of obtaining specie, and
they will be instantly returned upon the
Bank that issues them, III order TO be ex-
changed for specie.
The notes too Which already existed in
the foreign circulation would receive the
same destination, and thus the bank
he quickly drained of lis specie to the
full amount of its redundant paper or in
other words. TO the fnllamount of the pa
per advanced to individuals beyond what,
ifthere had been no bank, they would
have been obliged to keep by them in gold
and silver TO answer occasional demands
and this have shown would be more than
one half the notes in circulation, if the
bank acted on the principle, it is expect
ted 10 adopt that Is, more thana million
OF notes would represented for payment,
and to meet these demands there would
be one million specie.
Nor is this ALL Every year ilat the war
lasted, new debtwould create a newlrun
upon the bank. The Expedients towhich
it might perhaps at first resort, to reple-
hish its Golfers, would besoon exhausted
and this state of things would not long re-
main unobseryed. The holders of the
notes in oar own state would take the IL
farm. Their confidence in the solvency
ofan Institution, which was continually
paying specie, without the means of get
ting anyreturned, would necessarilybe sha-
ken, and they too would press to have
their notes exchanged for. something
which could not depreciafe in their
hands. Thus most of the notes in circu-
iatlon would be presented for payment,
while the Bank in consequence of the in
discretion of its loans would be unable re
call IN its debts in time The moment it
became unable TO pay. and the causes of
this inability were understood, bank
notes and bank stock would rapidly de-
preeiate, and the whole country be invol-
we'd in the greatest distress, unless the Le-
sislature should have interfered in time TO
arrest the evil. This it would be Obliged
10 do fer the very reasons which induced
IT 10 sanction the course adopted by the
banks of Va during the late war, & which
since have lnuced it to suspend from
time to time the law Of the last session.
It could not be insensble to such q state of
things. The people who hled the notes
would require il TO interfere. The con-
duct OF the banks q the desire Ofpunishing
them would be lost sight of in the more i'm
portant interests ofthe Countrywide pains
and penalties enacted against them be
forgotten, and thus the same disprac eful
scenes be again witnessed, which have
lately caused SO man. lust COM
plants and excited such well founded an
prehensions.
III tiilS reasoning IS correct, the idea Of
some gentlemen, that bank paper NAV be
multiplied to almost any extent, provided
the Legislature will say, thai it Shall at all
times be convertible into specie, is about
aswlld as the project of the famous Mr..
Law, founded upon similar notion of
The unlimited issue ofpaper, which Smith
denomlnates, the most extravagant
project both of Banking and Stockton
ing thai the world ever saw"
There IS IN truth great difference be-
tween enactlng that thing shaH be done
and making 1t possible to perform if.
The same force, which puts the rock in
to motion on the top of the mountain. is
not sufficient to arrest its course towards
the plan; nor can any Legislature which
gives life and activity to these institutions.
undertake to say, when future Legisla-
ture can or ought to doom them to
death.
But without some such security. ought
we not TO proceed at least cautiouslyin
granting charters? Are the advantages
OF banking so great as to induce us TO run
the risk of encountering all the evils of
deprecated currency, in order to obtain
them VIC have seen that if the opera
tons of banks are confined to such adyan-
ces as alone they can safely make, thew do
not augment the capital of country, but
only render that part of it active and pro-
duotive, which the merchant, the farmer.
or fhe agrlcuturist are obliged, without
assistance, TO keep by them UNEMPLOYED
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