I must here observe, that by this plan of the Regent, there was, in one sense, a kind of security for the notes issued. So far as they were issued for coin brought in from the advanced value of the paper, this coin was the security: in the second place, when the coin was paid away to the creditors of the state, the Regent withdrew the obligations which had been granted to them; and although I allow that the King’s own obligation withdrawn, was no security to the public, who had received bank notes for the payment; yet still the interest formerly paid to the creditors, was a fund out of which, upon the principles of public credit, the annual interest for the notes was secured. Had, indeed, the French nation perceived upon what bottom the security for the paper stood, during the year 1719, perhaps the credit of the bank might have been rendred precarious; but they neither saw it or sought after it: and the men of speculation were all of opinion, that as long as there was no more paper issued by the bank _than there was coin in the kingdom_, there could be no harm done. Of this any person who has read Dutot, de Melon, Savarie, and others, will be perfectly satisfied[17]. And I desire no farther proof of the total ignorance of the French in matters of this kind, than to find them agreeing, that bank paper is always good, providing there be coin in the nation to realize it, although that coin be not the property of the bank. [Dutot, p. 132, 133.] On the contrary, it is very evident from what has been said, that although there should be a thousand times more coin in a country than the bank paper, still that bank paper must be a mere delusion, and, in fact, of no value whatsoever, except so far as the bank is possessed of the value of it in one species of property or another. Footnote 17: It is astonishing to find how gravely Messrs. de Melon and Dutot reasoned concerning the nature of paper money, and the effects of changing the value of the coin. They both seemed to agree that a livre was a livre whether it was the 28th or the 50th part of a marc of silver, whether it was a denomination upon paper, well or ill secured, no matter which. The whole reasoning turned merely on the question, who were robbed, and who fantastically enriched by such absurd operations upon the coin of a country? The jargon of such men certainly contributed a great deal to darken the understandings of the ministry at this time; and to make them believe that the affairs of money were infinitely more obscure and more difficult to be understood than they really are.