126 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



has the liberty of drawing out whenever he pleases, and 

 he pays only the ordinary interest for it while it is in 

 his hands. He may, when he pleases, repay any sum 

 so small as twenty pounds, and the interest is discon- 

 tinued from the very day of repayment. The advantages 

 resulting from this contrivance are manifold. As a man 

 may find surety nearly to the amount of his substance 

 and his bank credit is equal to ready money, a merchant 

 does hereby in a manner coin his house, his household 

 furniture, the goods in his warehouse, the foreign debts 

 due to him, his ships at sea, and can on occasion employ 

 them all in payments, as if they were the current money 

 of the country. If a man borrow a thousand pounds 

 from a private hand (besides that it is not always to be 

 found when required), he pays interest for it whether he 

 be using it or not, whereas his bank credit costs him 

 nothing except during the very moment in which it is 

 of service to him. And this circumstance is of equal 

 advantage as if he had borrowed money at much lower 

 interest." This we deem a very admirable appreciation, 

 so far as it goes, of the peculiar advantages of the Cash 

 Credit Account, a mode of transaction, be it remembered, 

 in which our Scottish banks have invested millions of 

 money, but we do not deem it a full appreciation. It is 

 doubtless a great matter to our traders of Scotland that 

 they should be able to coin, through its means, their 

 houses, their furniture, their ships, and the debts 

 owing to them. But it enables them to do much more : 

 it enables them to coin their characters should they be 

 good ones, even should houses, ships, and furniture be 

 wanting. True, the banks must be satisfied that there 

 is property in every individual case to coin, but the 

 holder of the account may have none, it is enough that 

 what he wants his sureties have. He may have character 



