It is important, therefore, to be conscious of the arbitrary power that makes this low degree of wealth permanent wealth. Because law has decreed that it shall be in the highest class of wealth, then it comes first amongst a bank’s assets, because this is the class of wealth that in certain circumstances would have to satisfy the strongest of human desires. Is it the wealth that a bank transforms? It is transformed, because though it lies in a bank’s vaults, it is transformed into the same substance as other wealth and thereby becomes fruitful. In this manner it is able to multiply itself, not into gold, but into other forms of wealth. It multiplies itself into gold indirectly by stimulating and helping the production of it. When gold is brought to the Bank of England and converted into notes, it performs the same services as when it is taken to banks and is converted into that other form of paper currency, cheques. The gold gets into circulation, and is just as fruitful though it be circulated in the form of coin, instead of notes. It makes no difference whether this gold is retained in the vaults of the joint stock banks, or is placed in the keeping of the Bank of England. In fact, if it is placed in the keeping of the Bank of England, it can be made more fruitful, for the Bank of England re-utilizes it, and increases the potential amount of currency based upon it. The next asset is the money at call and short notice. The money at call is, as already explained, practically the money lent to bill brokers, and forms a part of what is called a bank’s liquid reserve. If in a time of grave urgency the bank “calls” this money from the bill brokers, it simultaneously “calls” in its loan deposits. It is understood that in those moments the brokers would be unable to repay their loans if they could not get the money from the banks. If, therefore, they cannot get the money from the banks, how can this portion of the deposits be withdrawable from the banks? If they were withdrawn, they would have to be paid in again the moment they were withdrawn. We know that in those times, however, the loans would be called and the bill-brokers would have to borrow the money from the Bank of England. And this money being paid over to the creditor bank, the deposits would automatically fall, and the proportion of the gold reserve to the other deposits would automatically rise. It is a conviction in Lombard Street that in those times the bill-brokers could get no money from the joint stock banks. That being so, what is called the credit superstructure does not appear to be so unwieldy as it looks.