676. BANK (U. S.), Subscriptions to.—[further continued].
The bank filled and overflowed
in the moment it was opened. Instead
of twenty thousand shares, twenty-four
thousand were offered, and a great many were
presented, who had not suspected that so
much haste was necessary. Thus it is that we
shall be paying 13 per cent, per ann. for eight
millions of paper money, instead of having
that circulation of gold and silver for nothing.
Experience has proved to us that a
dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of
paper emitted; and, for the paper emitted
from the bank, seven per cent. profits will be
received by the subscribers for it as bank
paper (according to the last division of profits
by the Philadelphia bank), and six per cent.
on the public paper of which it is the representative.
Nor is there any reason to believe,
that either the six millions of public paper,
or the two millions of specie deposited, will
not be suffered to be withdrawn, and the
paper thrown into circulation. The cash deposited
by strangers for safe keeping will
probably suffice for cash demands.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. iii, 268.
Ford ed., v, 352.
(Pa.,
1791)
