class of capitalists come into the field to do their own banking business. They also prosper; they also pay a handsome dividend; and their shares also bring a premium. All this may be in the legitimate course of business, and no more than the increase of commercial transactions may warrant and require.
"But it may be that a crowd of persons, hearing of fortunes being speedily made by the purchase of bank shares, rush into the field. Half-a-dozen new joint-stock banks are projected. The shares are bought up with avidity. These shares soon bring a considerable premium, and thousands of persons rejoice at having a new source of profit opened to them. But now commences the mischief.
"Let us consider, first, how this will affect the general trade of the district. Each of the six new establishments is striving to obtain business; and as it is easy to issue paper which costs nothing, extraordinary temptations are held out in the way of discounts and advances. The man who with difficulty can have his bills cashed at one of the old establishments is glad to carry it where not only they are all taken without scruple, but a few thousand pounds of advance may be easily had. A seeming prosperity is created. Every man so favoured extends his business, or enters into new speculations. It is high noon in a summer's day, and the dark nights and the winter's frosts are things that have been.
"The end of all this is best illustrated by a supposition case of the career of some of these prosperity-creating establishments. If, in a large town, there are numbers also in the surrounding smaller towns of persons willing to accept of the proffered accommodation, it may be supposed that there are numbers who will be equally disposed to accept a share in the abundance. A score or two of branches are established, and at all of them the same liberality prevails. The shareholders rejoice in doing a large business, looking complacently at the increased marketable value of their shares; and the persons who have opened accounts rejoice also, that all manner of promises to pay are immediately convertible into the notes of the bank. Of course it cannot be supposed that the directors, who have liberally diffused happiness to all around them, will deny themselves all participation in the universal joy. They see no necessity for a self-denying ordinance. They are, therefore, in no haste to pay up instalments on their own shares, money being abundant enough already; and as it would be an insult to the bank to suppose that its own directors are not worthy of all credit, they liberally discount the bills received in the course trading in their own individual businesses, and freely draw bank for assistance in their own individual speculations.
