To bring what has been said within a narrower compass, and to lay it under our eye at once, let us call the domestic circulation of a country, where a bank is established, (A).
The specie itself, to carry it on, (B).
The balances to other nations, (D).
The bank must have a command of credit and coin equal to the sum of (B) and (D). If they have the value of (D) in any foreign place, where a general circulation of exchange is carried on; then they have only occasion for (B) at home, and can furnish bills to the amount of (D).
If (D), in consequence of bills drawn, shall come to be exhausted, the bank must replace it again, by new contracts, to strangers.
But as soon as (D) is paid, either in coin or in bills, then whatever coin is drawn from the bank, and sent away by private people, (exchangers, &c.) must form a balance due to the country; which balance will render exchange favourable, and will occasion a loss to those who sent away the coin. In this case, the more credit the bank gives, so much more will their profits increase.
To conclude: Let banks never complain of those who demand coin of them, except in the case when it is demanded in order to be melted down, or for domestic circulation, which may as well be carried on with paper.
And so soon as a demand for coin to pay a foreign balance begins, it is then both the duty and interest of all good citizens to be as assistant as possible to banks, by contenting themselves with paper for their own occasions, and by throwing into the bank all the coin which casually falls into their hands. As to duty, I shall offer no argument to enforce it. But I say it becomes a national concern to assist the bank; because the loss incurred by the bank in procuring coin, falls ultimately on every individual, by raising exchange; consequently, prices, by raising the interest of money to be borrowed; and last of all, by constituting a perpetual interest to be paid to foreigners, out of the revenue of the solid property of the country. Upon such occasions, a good citizen ought to blush at pulling out a purse, when his own interest, and that of his country, should make him satisfied with a pocket book.