But let us suppose (what perhaps is the matter of fact) that the extensive operations of trade and credit, do actually fix an average for the price of stocks, from the value of money in other nations in Europe. Would not then the consequence of bringing down the rate of legal interest, below that level, be, to send out of the kingdom all the money now circulating on private security, real and personal? Would not this destroy all private credit at one blow? Would it not have the effect of preventing, among individuals, the loan upon interest altogether? What would become of the bank of England, and all other banks, whose paper in circulation is all in the hands of private people? Is not every man who has a bank note, a creditor on the bank, and would not the same interest which moves other creditors to exact their debts, under such circumstances, also move many holders of bank notes, to demand payment of them? Would not a run of that nature, only for a few weeks, throw the whole nation into the most dreadful distress? May we not even suppose, that upon such an occasion, the monied interest (_from a certainty of disappointing the intention of government in making the law_) might form a combination among themselves to lock up their money, even although it should remain dead in their hands for a few months? What would become of the improvement of land? Is there an industrious farmer any where to be met with, who does not borrow money, which he can so profitably turn to account upon his farm, even though he receives it at the highest legal interest? These and many more inconveniences _might_ manifest themselves, were government to force down the value of money, contrary to the ordinary operations of demand and competition: and to what purpose have recourse to authority, when it is most certain, that without any such expedient the same end may be compassed?