737. BANKS, Scarcity of Medium and.—[further continued].
Our circulating paper of
the last year was estimated at two hundred
millions of dollars. The new banks now
petitioned for, to the several Legislatures, are
for about sixty millions additional capital, and
of course one hundred and eighty millions
of additional circulation, nearly doubling that
of the last year, and raising the whole mass
to near four hundred millions, or forty for
one, of the wholesome amount of circulation
for a population of eight millions circumstanced
as we are, and you remember how
rapidly our money went down after our forty
for one establishment in the Revolution. I
doubt if the present trash can hold as long.
I think the three hundred and eighty millions
must blow all up in the course of the
present year, or certainly it will be consummated
by the reduplication to take place of
course at the legislative meetings of the next
winter. Should not prudent men, who possess
stock in any moneyed institution, either
draw and hoard the cash now while they can,
or exchange it for canal stock, or such other
as being bottomed on immovable property
will remain unhurt by the crush?—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 306.
(M.
Jan. 1814)
