§ 5. No money in the time of the Homeric poems

6. First kind of Currency in Greece

7. Invention of Coining

8. Coinage of the Lydians

9.

Relation between Coin and Bullion

368

10.

On the meaning of the MINT PRICE and MARKET PRICE

of Gold and Silver

370

11. Consequences of a Depreciated Coinage

372

12. Good and bad Coin cannot circulate together, but the bad

Coin drives out the good

374

Lowndes's proposals

Locke on Coinage.

Newton on the Coinage

Recoinage of 1816

18. On a SEIGNORAGE

Smith and McCulloch in favour of a Seignorage

Lord Liverpool against

Of a DECIMAL COINAGE

20. Three distinct Systems of Coinage

21. A Decimal Coinage good in the first System

22. The French an example of the second System

23. The English an example of the third System

24. Feeling in favour of decimalizing the Coinage

25. Plausibility of this

26. But erroneous

391

393

402

407

408

409

410

412

415

44-45. Superiority of Decimal Accounts

33-87. Decimal integers and decimal fractions not analogous

38-42. Superiority of present system

46-50. Decimal Coinage of the United States

51-54. Commercial Practice rejects Decimal subdivisions

55. Decimal Coinage in France

56. Decimal Coinage in Italy

57. Decimal Coinage in Belgium.

§ 64. Observations on these examples

65-69. Proposals to Decimalize the British Coinage

70. Impossibility to Decimalize the British Coinage

71. Or to have an International Coinage

CHAPTER VII.

THE THEORY OF CREDIT.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

SECTION I.

PAGE

429

430

432

433

435

6. On the Application of the THEORY Of ALGEBRAICA

INVESTIGATION OF THE NATURE OF CREDIT.

§ 1. Definition of CREDIT

2. Distinction between a BAILMENT and a DEBT

Difference between Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange, &c.,

and Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants

3. On the Ambiguity in the meaning of the word LOAN.

The word Loan in English is applied to two operations of a

distinct nature

Distinction between Mutuum and Commodatum

4. On some erroneous Ideas as to the NATURE of CREDIT

Error of Mr. Henry Thornton and M. Cernuschi

Mathematicians call Debts Negative Quantities

5. Thornton's mode of statement violates five distinct branches

of human knowledge

and of the SEPARATION of the SIGNS of POSITION and

RAICAL SIGNS,

OPERATION to ECONOMICS.

453

7. Meaning of the symbols +, 0, and — in Natural Philosophy 454

8. Examples of this

12. Rule of the Combination of Signs applicable to Economics. 457

13. Application of Signs to Economics

458

If the Right to demand be Positive, the Duty to pay is Negative 459

If Corporeal Property be Positive, Incorporeal Property is

Negative

17. Classification of Transferable Property.

18. Defective statement of Rules regarding Debts

463

463

20.

19. A RELEASE from a DEBT is INCREASE of WEALTH.

Erroneous statement of Peacock

Credit is a personal Right to demand, and Debt is a personal

Duty to pay.

469

PAGE

How the gift of a Credit extinguishes a Debt

§ 24.

Use of Credit in commerce

25. Money is a Right, but Debt is a Duty

26. Comparative quantity of Credit and Money in Commerce

27. Credit is Incorporeal Property

28. Credit classed as WEALTH in Roman Law

And also in English Law

29. Last error about Credit

30. Wealth is an Exchangeable Right

Credit is in Economics what Gravity is in Mechanics

Overthrow of the Lucretian Philosophy

SECTION II.

ON THE TRANSFER OF CREDIT, OR DEBTS.

§ 31. Different kinds of Property

Property held in Dominion, and Property held in Contract. 481

Bilateral Contracts and Unilateral Contracts.

481

32.

Rise and Progress of the power of selling Debts in Roman Law 483

33. No Trustees or Attornies in early Roman Law

484

34. Rise of Equitable Rights

35. Procurators allowed.

Creditor allowed to sue as Procurator of the Assignor.

36. Constitution of Alexander Severus allowing the absolute

sale of Debts

486

38. These Laws were the Commercial Law of all Europe, except

England

488

39. The Romans used Drafts

489

40. Principles of English Law and Equity relating to the Trans-

fer of Debts.

45. Choses-in-action assignable at Law if created so with the

46. At Common Law, the assignee may sue in the name of the

assignor

497

Equity allows the free Transfer of a Debt

497

47, Rules of Common Law as to Transfer of Debt

499

48. Upon INSTRUMENTS of CREDIT

499

49. Origin of the modern System of Bills of Exchange

50. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes payable to bearer,

500

in common use in London in the time of Edward IV.

501

d

PAGE

Example of Bill of Exchange of 1482, and a Promissory

Note of 1488

502

Example of a Bill of Exchange of 1589

503

§ 51.

Subsequent history of Negotiable Paper in England

503

52.

The distinction between Bills as Orders, and Notes as Pro-

mises to Pay, only dates from 1704

505

54. Selected by the Royal Commissioners for the Digest of the

Law to prepare the Digest of the Law of Credit

510

511

57. System of Credit consists of two branches, Commercial

Credit and Banking Credit.

SECTION IV.

ON COMMERCIAL CREDIT.

§ 58. Credit based on Simultaneous Transfers of Commodities

Explanation of the use of Bills in Exchange in Commerce.

Business of Bankers to buy these Debts

519

521

522

524

Example of the distinction between Bills of Exchange and

Bills of Lading

527

Contraction of issues by Bankers

529

59. On Credit created for the purpose of being applied to the

62. On the meaning of the word Bank

Bank is the equivalent of the Italian MONTE

PAGE

§ 65. True nature of Banking business

552

A Banker is a trader who buys Money, or Money and Debts,

Mr. Hamilton's Report on Banking, shewing that it augments

the Capital of a country

574

When the duty of Bankers to raise the Rate of Discount

577

68. On CASH CREDITS

578

Statement of the Nature and Uses of Cash Credits

579

68. Great utility of Cash Credits in developing Scotch Agricul-

ture, Commerce, and Public Works .

Cash Credits are of the nature of Accommodation Paper

69. On OPEN CREDITS.

70. On ACCOMMODATION BILLS

Exposition of the nature and true danger of Accommodation

Bills

This explanation quoted by Mr. Commissioner Holroyd, in

his judgment in the case of Lawrence, Mortimer and

Schrader, March 7, 1861

582

583

584

584

586

589

71. On the Transformation of TEMPORARY CREDIT into PER-

MANENT CAPITAL

591

Example of the doctrine that the Release of a Debt is always
an equivalent

72. The Capital of Joint Stock Banks is increased by turning

their own CREDIT into CAPITAL

592

73. On the CLEARING HOUSE

594

SECTION VI.

ON BANKS OF CREDIT FONCIER.

§ 74. Origin and Nature of Banks of Credit Foncier

CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE SELF-CONTRADICTIONS OF J. B. SAY AND

MR. J. S. MILL ON THE SUBJECT OF CREDIT.

601

606

607