Items (_a_), (_b_), (_c_), and (_d_) together, therefore, more or less settle the matter. For the purpose of the present argument, however, we need not pay much separate attention to (_a_) and (_b_), since their effect is, for the most part, reflected over again in (_c_) and (_d_). (_a_) depends partly on the volume of trade but mainly on the price level itself; and in practice fluctuations in (_a_) do not _directly_ affect the banks’ “cash,”--for if more notes are required under (_a_), more notes are issued, the Treasury borrowing a corresponding additional amount from the Currency Note Reserve, in which case the Treasury either repays the Bank of England, which diminishes the Bank’s assets and consequently the other banks’ “cash,” or withdraws an equivalent amount of Treasury Bills, which diminishes the other banks’ second-line reserve; _i.e._ a change in (_a_) operates on the banks’ resources through (_c_) and (_d_).[53] Whilst as for (_b_), a change in the amount of what the Treasury borrows from the Currency Note Reserve is reflected by a corresponding change in the opposite sense in what it borrows in Ways and Means Advances or in Treasury Bills. [53] If the additional issue of notes is covered by transferring gold from the Bank of England, this is merely an alternative way of diminishing the Bank of England’s assets. Thus we can concentrate our attention on (_c_) and (_d_) as the main determining factors of the price level. Now (_c_), namely the assets of the Bank of England, consist (so far as their variable part is concerned) of (i.) Ways and Means advances to the Treasury. (ii.) Gilt-edged and other investments. (iii.) Advances to its customers and bills of exchange. (iv.) Gold. An increase in any of these items tends, therefore, to increase the other banks’ “cash,” thereby to stimulate the creation of credit, and hence to raise the price level; and contrariwise. And (_d_), namely the banks’ holdings of Treasury Bills, depend on the excess of the expenditure of the Treasury over and above what it secures (i.) from the public by taxation and loans, (ii.) from the Bank of England in Ways and Means advances, and (iii.) by borrowing from the Currency Note Reserve. It follows that the capacity of the Joint Stock banks to create credit is mainly governed by the policies and actions of the Bank of England and of the Treasury. When these are settled, (_a_), (_b_), (_c_), and (_d_) are settled.