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النشر الإلكتروني

THE

PRINCIPLES, &c.

ON CURRENCY.

IF it had been made a supposition, that

the national Bank of Ireland should increase the issues of its paper nearly five times beyond their original amount, would it not have occurred to the plainest understanding, that a great depreciation, and a discount on its paper, must have been the consequence? Such an increase has taken place; and what might have been expected from theory, is at present amply substantiated by fact. The Bank of Ireland has increased its issues to near five times their original amount; a depreciation has taken

A

place; and a discount been established of at

least 10 per cent.

Whatever difference of opinion may have existed relative to the question of depreciation, as it regards the currency of England, there is no doubt that under such circumstances the currency of Ireland has suffered a most serious depreciation. The advocates of the Bank of England maintained, that, because there was no discount on its paper, there could be no depreciation; which, though an incorrect mode of reasoning, is a proof, that, had there been a discount, they would have granted a depreciation to exist. That there is a discount on Irish Bank paper is known to every one, and proclaimed daily* in every newspaper by the different advertisements for buying and selling guineas. It is not therefore necessary to adopt. the arguments which were resorted to in

*

The period referred to throughout this work, is that of the publication of the first edition, Feb. 1804.

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