THE

ELEMENTS

OF

Β Α Ν ΚΙ N G.

BY

HENRY DUNNING MACLEOD, M.A.

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

AND THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER - AT-LAW:
SELECTED BY THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS FOR THE DIGEST OF THE LAW

LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., YEW-STREET SQCARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

PREFACE.

THE PURPOSE of the following work is to exhibit in the

simplest language possible the mechanism of the great

system of CREDIT, BANKING, and the FOREIGN EXCHANGES,

and to explain the reasoning upon which is founded the Principle of Currency, which I published in 1856—THAT

THE TRUE METHOD OF CONTROLLING CREDIT AND THE PAPER

CURRENCY IS BY ADJUSTING TIIE RATE OF DISCOUNT BY THE

BULLION IN

THE BANK AND THE STATE OF THE FOREIGN

EXCHANGES—which is now universally acknowledged to

be the true one, and which is now adopted by the Bank

of England and by every bank in the world.

H. D. M.