Az 
MONEY 
are not the identical persons who lost by the first, 
and vice versa.. Institutions, too, suffer loss, though 
we can scarcely speak of justice in their case: one of 
the greatest losers is usually the State in its corporate 
capacity. The trifling gain made by issuing interest- 
free notes instead of interest-bearing loans is far 
more than set off by the higher prices which the State 
has to pay for everything which it buys during a 
period when its expenditure would in any case have 
been abnormally large—higher prices which lead to 
the contraction of debt far exceeding in magnitude 
what would have been the whole cost of the commo- 
dities and services obtained, if they had been paid 
for at the prices prevailing before and after the period 
of suspension. 
Unless a halt is called the end comes with a crash. 
In saying above that increases of the supply of coal 
or gold would always find plenty of demand at 
sufficiently reduced prices “down to a very low 
limit,” we had in mind that no commodity is wanted 
in indefinite quantities. However the demand may 
extend, it will not extend indefinitely, and with every 
commodity there is a point beyond which no more 
will be required, however cheap the commodity can 
be got. It would take a considerable increase in 
the supply of coal to London to bring its price there 
down from say 30s. to 10s. a ton, but if a further 
increase of supply brought it down to 2s., it is quite 
certain that a very little increase on the top of that 
would bring it down to almost nothing. Nobody 
wants indefinite amounts. So, too, with gold, per- 
haps even more clearly: very cheap gold would 
be unsuitable for currency and for ostentatious 
ornament, so two of the principal sources of demand 
for gold would cease to exist if gold were found in 
very large quantities. So it is with notes. As long 
as their increase is sufficiently slow and the total