()n Agricultural Improvements in Roxburgh, 165 



was satisfied with the names, the money was paid at 

 once, always deducting the interest.* It was not al- 

 ways required that the subscribers to a note should at 

 the time have a running account with the bank, but it 

 was essential that one or more of the subscribers 

 should be possessed of real property to the satisfaction 

 of the bank. No person or club could draw any more 

 money until the first note was paid, but in order to en- 

 sure a constant supply of money, the different clubs, 

 by mixing and forming new combinations, found means 

 to pay their respective notes, with the very money 

 which they had drawn from the same bank on the same 

 day. As improvements advanced, the demand for 

 money became greater, and the number of banks in- 

 creased, until one, two, or more banks, or branches of 

 banks, were established in almost every town and vil- 

 lage over the country, and a very great proportion of 

 the business was ingrossed by farmers, manufacturers, 

 and mechanics. This capital might be said to be ficti- 

 tious and illusory, but the fruits produced by it were 

 real and substantial. By this means three or four 

 bushels of wheat were raised, where one had been rais- 

 ed before, and twenty or thirty fat cattle sold to the butch- 

 er, in one season, from a farm which formerly could 

 hardly feed one beef for the farmer's own family. Eve- 

 ry farmer could now afford to pay three times the rent 



* It may be proper to observe, that notwithstanding the constant 

 practice of discounting good paper on any day, and paying the 

 money over the counter, the instant it is presented and approved ; 

 yet they have besides, their regular discount days, particularly the 

 large banks in the cities ; some of them three times a week. 



