378 Jones—Relation of Economic Grises to Legislation. 
Wolowski, the most prominent champion of the privileges of 
the Bank of France, held that competition in bank-note issue 
had no more place than in the coining of metallic money. 1 And 
this latter it was the duty of the state to regulate for the same 
reason that it provided one law, one measure, and one weight. 2 
The system of a single bank has the great advantage of rest¬ 
ing responsibility in a definite place. 3 It puts an unmistakable 
duty upon those in whose hands the course of monetary affairs 
rests, and makes impossible the shifting and neglect of it which 
is inevitable among a multitude of competing banks. In this 
way public opinion and publicity of accounts is enabled to ex¬ 
ercise a powerful influence when concentrated upon one man¬ 
agement. 
The very independence of a bank with monopoly privileges 
removes from it all necessity, from competition with rivals, of 
extending its advances beyond the limit of safety. The strug¬ 
gle to earn dividends is removed, and such a bank may order its 
policy for the public welfare. A competing bank, it was urged, 
must outdo competitors in order to obtain trade, and it must 
therefore be in sympathy with, and to an undue extent subor¬ 
dinated to, the demands made upon it. 4 The essence of the 
competitive spirit is to increase the business done upon a given 
capital to the greatest possible extent, and not only this, but 
the tendency of competitive banking is to calculate more closely 
the average balance of deposits-on-call and extend still fur¬ 
ther the issue of notes relying upon the constancy of this bal¬ 
ance. To increase their issues, banks are often willing to divide 
1 Cf. his article “Question des Banques,” Journ. des Econ., Fev., 1864, 
Tome 41, p. 163. 
2 Wolowski, op. cit., p. 163, says: “ Une loi, une mesure , une poids,une 
monnaie, tel a fete le voeu s&culaire de la France, accompli aujourd’hui; 
quand il s’agit de preserver le toute atteinte cette precieuse conquete, 
loin de sacrifier le droit individuel, l’etat le couvre d’une utile garantie; 
il feconde le travail, en assurant la circulation facile et l’echange sin¬ 
cere des produits; il accomplit ainsi la haute mission sociale qui lui est 
devolue.” 
3 E. Nasse. Art. “Banken” (Bankpolitik) Conrad’s Handworterbuch 
Bd. IL, p. 32. Also S. J. Loyd, “Reflections suggested by a Perusal of 
the Pamphlet of Mr. Horsley Palmer.” London, 1837, p. 52. 
4 Edinburgh Rev., vol. 65, Apr., 1837, p. 85. 
