370 PAPER MONEY IN CHAP. XXX. 



as applicable to the purchase of gold, varied but 

 little during the course of the term. 



Although we have accurate knowledge of the 

 amount of bank of England notes in circulation, 

 yet we must depend on estimation as far as re- 

 gards the notes of private bankers in England, of 

 the corporate and joint-stock companies of Scot- 

 land, and of the paper circulation of Ireland. We 

 shall therefore assume that the bank of England 

 notes were equal in amount to the notes of all the 

 other descriptions which circulated in the united 

 kingdom. In the year 1810, the bank of England 

 notes were about twenty-four millions, and the 

 other paper monies being equal, the whole may be 

 taken at forty-eight millions. The price of gold 

 at that time was four pounds ten shillings the 

 ounce. The whole paper money would then have 

 purchased ten million six hundred and sixty-six 

 thousand six hundred and sixty-six ounces of 

 gold. In the year 1814, the bank notes amounted 

 to thirty millions, and that of the other kinds 

 being supposed to be equal, the whole would be 

 sixty millions. The price of gold was five pounds 

 ten shillings, and the paper money would have pur- 

 chased ten million nine hundred and nine thou- 

 sand and ninety ounces of gold. In the year 

 1829, the average circulation of the bank was 

 nineteen million nine hundred and forty-eight 

 thousand pounds, or twenty millions ; and, taking 



