

!* . 



838 



UKPORT 1884, 



apparent anomalioa, whose explanation must bo soiij^'bt in tlie causes alhuleii to. 

 To increaso the volume of papor uionoy \v\wn tho |)()iiit of saturation luis been 

 roaclicd is impossiljlo, and its result can only bo nommuUy to raise prices, and to 

 expi'l bullion from tlio country. 



Tbo development of a ^^)()d banking,' system has the jfreatest eileet in econoniisin); 

 the use of tbu precious metnls: tbo use of tbo I'ost OlKco for transmittini,' .small 

 sums, and the growtb of savings banks, bas tbe same tendency. On tbo otber handj 

 an increase of population and wealtb, and an accompanyinpr tendency to a rLse in 

 wages, act in Ibo opj)osite direction. It is extremely dillicult, perbaps impowiUe, 

 to say wbat is tbe ellect of tbe sum of tbeso forces. 



Many attempts bave been made to improve on tbe existing system, and the 

 decim.il system and international coinage, closely allied topics, have a vast literature 

 of tlieir own. Tliore is a gradual tendt^ncy to unification; for some time the 

 United Kingdom and tbe Unittnl States, aud far more recently (termany and Italy, 

 have bud a national currency ; biit as long as in iMigland alone we Iiave almost as 

 many measures of wbeat as wo have markets, it is at least sanguine to expect a 

 change in our system of currency, or the adoption of an ideally perfect sy8tem,8uch 

 as is attributed by Montesquieu to a trilx) of Central Africa. 



2. National BeMs} By Michael G. Mulhall. 



Starting from tbe time of tbe Treaty of Utrecht (1713), we find tbe debts have 

 risen thus : — 



• Published in full by Messrs. Roiitledge, Ludgate Hill, London. 



