74 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. iii. 



It may even admit of a question, whether, under 

 similar circumstances, the country banks would 

 not have issued nearly the same quantity of paper, 

 if the Bank of England had not been restricted 

 from payment in specie. Before this event the 

 issues of the country banks in paper were regu- 

 lated by the quantity which the circulation would 

 take up ; and after, as well as before, they were 

 obliged to pay the notes which returned upon 

 them in Bank of England circulation. The differ- 

 ence in the two cases would arise principally from 

 the pernicious custom, adopted since the restric- 

 tion of the bank, of issuing one and two pound 

 notes, and from the little preference that many 

 people might feel, if they could not get gold, be- 

 tween country bank paper and Bank of England 

 paper. 



This very great issue of country bank paper 

 during the years 1800 and 1801 was evidently, 

 therefore, in its origin, rather a consequence than 

 a cause of the high price of provisions; but being 

 once absorbed into the circulation, it must necessa- 

 rily affect the price of all commodities, and throw 

 very great obstacles in the way of returning cheap- 

 ness. This is the great mischief of the system. 

 During the scarcity, it is not to be doubted that the 

 increased circulation, by preventing the embar- 

 rassments which commerce and speculation must 

 otherwise have felt, enabled the country to conti- 

 nue all the branches of its trade with less inter- 

 ruption, and to import a much greater quantity 

 of grain, than it could have done otherwise; but 



