To explain how this sudden collection of gold, effected by Great Britain with as much perseverance as vigour, did not bring about a general crisis; it has been said, and not without reason, that the quantity of the precious metals now existing in the shape of money, rendered the oscillations in its production and supply as money, less sensibly felt. It should be recollected, that if the metallic values were so greatly depreciated by the discoveries of America, this state referred to the existing condition of Europe, exhausted both of silver and gold. The difference thus exhibited between the two periods is very evident; but it does not appear to be sufficient to account for the facility with which the circulation may increase in the present day, without affecting the price of silver or gold. It may be as well to add, that this movement, which appears to convey life throughout every artery of commerce, is not fed now solely, as in olden times, and during the middle ages, by the precious metals. Metallic money now forms but a small portion of the total circulation, if we take into account the mass of bank notes, bills of exchange, drafts and bankers’ cheques, which complete the amount of a circulating medium of exchange; this, at the present day, taken as a whole, is something almost indefinite: it appears to defy all calculation; and we might almost say that the excess in the production of gold and silver now need not necessarily produce more influence than the waves of the sea on the permanent level of the ocean.