er it worth while for the owners to look out for an investment,
but which in the aggregate form a considerable amount. This amount may
be considered a clear addition to the productive capital of the country;
at least, to the capital in activity at any moment. And as this addition
to the capital accrues wholly to that part of it which is not employed
by the owners, but lent to other producers, the natural effect is a
diminution of the rate of interest.

The banker, to the extent of his own private capital, (the expenses of
his business being first paid,) is a lender at interest. But, being
subject to risk and trouble fully equal to that which belongs to most
other employments, he cannot be satisfied with the mere interest even
of his whole capital: he must have the ordinary profits of stock, or he
will not engage in the business: the state of banking must be such as to
hold out to him the prospect of adding, to the interest of what remains
of his own capital after paying the expenses of his business, interest
upon capital deposited with him, in sufficient amount to make up, after
paying the expenses, the ordinary profit which could be derived from his
own capital in any productive employment. This will be accomplished in
one of two ways.

1. If the circumstances of society are such as to furnish a ready
investment of disposable capital; (as for instance in London, where the
public funds and other securities, of undoubted stability, and affording
great advantages for receiving the interest without trouble and
realizing the principal without difficulty when required, tempt all
persons who have sums of importance lying idle, to invest them on their
own account without the intervention of any middleman;) the deposits
with bankers consist chiefly of small sums likely to be wanted in a very
short period for current expenses, and the interest on which would
seldom be worth the trouble of calculating it. Bankers, therefore, do
not allow any interest on their deposits. After paying the expenses of
their business, all the rest of the interest they receive is clear gain.
But as the circumstances of banking, as of all other modes of employing
capital, will on the average be such as to afford to a person entering
into the business a prospect of realizing the ordinary, and no more than
the ordinary, profits upon his own capital; the gains of each banker by
the investment of his deposits, will not on the average exceed what is
necessa