[m'lachlanJ copper CURRENCY OF THE CANADIAN BANKS 231 



Thus, without any adequate remuneration did the Canadian banks 

 come to relief of the public, suffering from the instability and insecurity 

 of their copper change, by taking up a duty recognized as devolving 

 upon the government, a duty which it seemed unwilling or incapable 

 of performing. And yet it was not so much the want of trust on the 

 part of the people in the change, privately provided, that caused the 

 distress as its over-issue. Had it been just sufficient or a little less 

 than sufficient, buyers and sellers would have gone on tendering and 

 accepting it without question, one token was as good as another, for 

 use as a counter in exchanging commodities, so long as all accepted it. 

 It made no difference to the exchangers whether it was only worth one- 

 half or even a quarter of the value it represented. But just as soon 

 as these counters exceeded the requirements of the country, they cariie 

 to partake of the character of a commodity, in which character they 

 were well nigh worthless, if not to all, at least to most of the people 

 they became discredited and were refused. It was the element of profit 

 which the merchants had introduced into their provision of a circulat- 

 ing medium that was the root of the evil, and the only true way for 

 averting such evil, a way proved by over 2,000 years of experience and 

 practice, is, that the supplying of the necessary circulating medium in 

 copper as well as in the nobler metals should be retained by the govern- 

 ment, and that from this duty all elements of profit should be 

 eliminated. 



The failure on the part of the Provincial Government was the 

 more serious because, as has already been noted, the change in the 

 currency which practically led to the withdrawal of all legal copper 

 change from the province, left the people to the mercy of private 

 enterprise and consequently to the exploitation of unscrupulous traders, 

 from which they were only rescued by the disinterested intervention of 

 the banks. 



And this vast quantity of spurious copper where has it gone ? How 

 much was imported and manufactured during the forty or more years 

 that it continued ? Shall we place it at double the issue of the banks, 

 say $300,000, and the $150,000 they provided how little of it still con- 

 tinues in circulation? How much of it did the banks, in accordance 

 with their license to issue, ever redeem? 



If it took 15,000,000 counters to supply less than 2,000,000 people 

 with small change for twenty years (60,000,000 pieces have since been 

 issued in the whole of Canada), how many more have been required in 

 gold and silver? We get an idea how constantly these counters have 

 to be renewed. How expensive this provision of a medium of exchange 

 which disappears in the course of a few years. And yet when we con- 

 sider the vast aggregate transactions of the country exceeding many 



