BANKS 49 



we take the distributor amid his transactions, 

 he is always either destroying his banking 

 credit, which is a part of his own capital, and 

 replacing it by goods, or he is sending out his 

 goods for consumption and replacing them by 

 restoring his credit on an ever-growing scale. 



As an illustration of what we may call the 

 subsidiary industrial branches, we may take the 

 banker. Banks have many resources, but here 

 it is only necessary to describe, as an instance 

 of their utility, one that is simple and familiar. 

 Banks are largely employed in making advances, 

 on the security of land, to farmers, as is done in 

 Western Canada. In making these advances a 

 bank no more directly increases the capacity of 

 the State to enhance values, and thus produce 

 articles necessary to that State, than does a doctor 

 when he cures a sick workman. But indirectly 

 the bank certainly does so. Without such an 

 advance a settler who has acquired land, even at 

 a nominal cost, would be unable to pay for the 

 lumber to build shelter for himself, his animals, 

 and his corn ; nor could he pay for his live stock, 

 nor for his agricultural implements. 



Granted a sufficient credit at a reasonable rate 

 of interest by a bank, he can pay for all these 

 things, and he can gradually discharge his debt 

 to the bank as his crops come in. It is to the 

 'interest of the nation that good men should settle 

 on the land and get to work advantageously, 

 because they then undoubtedly increase the 

 wealth of the State in the manner required. 

 Therefore it is to the interest of the State to 

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