vided that these effects are easily convertible into money. It is far from being the case that the mass of metal existing in a State is as large as the sum of the values lent on interest in the course of a year: on the contrary all the capitals in furniture, in merchandise, in tools, in cattle, take the place of the silver and represent it. A paper signed by a man who has well-known effects worth a hundred thousand francs, and who promises to pay a hundred thousand francs at such a date, passes for a hundred thousand francs until that date: all the capitals of the man who has signed this note answer for the payment, whatever may be the nature of the effects he has in his possession, provided they have a value of a hundred thousand francs. It is not, therefore, the quantity of silver existing as metal which causes the interest of money to rise or fall, or which brings into commerce more money ready to be lent; it is simply the sum of capitals to be found in commerce, that is to say, the actual sum of moveable values of every kind, accumulated, saved bit by bit[1] out of the revenues and profits, to be employed to obtain for the possessor new revenues and new profits. It is these accumulated savings that are offered to borrowers, and the more there are of them the lower is the rate of interest, at least if the number of borrowers is not augmented in proportion.
S81
The spirit of economy in a nation continually augments the sum of capitals; luxury continually tends to destroy them.
- ↑ Successivement,
