FACILITIES FOR TRADE 443 
for enlarging the currency by the issue of notes? but as a AD fos 
means of assisting traders generally, and thereby rendering 
r 
a 
y 
| 
- 
194 
k 
1e 
:h 
:d 
Id 
TS 
T= 
rd 
ik, 
ly 
18. 
1g. 
36), 
als, 
sr of 
was 
r to 
make the institution a success, and he suggests expedients by which this may 
be procured, An Expedient for taking away all Impositions, p. 4. He urged 
that the Crown would be wise to anticipate revenue on easier terms and also 
would be able to carry on a remunerative banking business, p. 6. His scheme is 
more fully expounded in his Wealth Discovered (1661), and was commended by 
Charles II. to the consideration of the Council of Trade. Compare also R. Murray's 
Proposal for the advancement of trade (1676) by the establishment of magazines 
where merchants might deposit surplus stock as security for advances made to 
them. 
1 Lambe recognised that the merchants who kept their accounts at the Bank 
could make payments to one another by the transfer of their credit with the 
Bank ; this was one important feature in the practice of the Bank of Amsterdam 
(Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. 1v. iii. p. 194). “A bank is a certain number 
of sufficient men of estates and credit joined together in a joint stock, being, as it 
were, the general cash keepers or treasurers of that place where they are settled, 
letting out imaginary money at interest at 2 and 4 or 81. per cent. to tradesmen, 
or others that agree with them for the same, and making payment thereof by 
assignation, and passing each man’s account from one to another with much 
facility and ease, and saving much trouble in receiving and paying of money, 
besides many suits in law and other losses and inconveniences, which do much 
hinder trade; for oftentimes & merchant hath goods come from some place beyond 
the sea, which he is not willing to sell at the price current, knowing either that he 
shall lose by them, or that he hopes they will yield more in England, or some 
other country where there will be more need of them; therefore is desirous to 
keep them, and yet drive on his frade, which peradventure he cannot well do 
wanting stock, so much of it lying dead in the said commodity, therefore procures 
credit in the bank for so much as he shall have occasion for, at the rates afore- 
said, and receives and makes payment thereof where he hath occasion for it, by 
assignment in bank. As, for example: The said merchant buys cloth of a clothier 
for 1001. value, more or less, and goes with him to the bank, where he is debtor so 
much money as he takes up, and the clothier is made creditor in account for so 
much as he sold for to the said merchant, then such clothier having occasion to 
pay money to a stapler or woolmonger, for wool he doth buy of him; so the said 
clothier is made debtor, and the woolmonger creditor in account; The said wool- 
monger hath bought his wool of a country farmer, and must pay him for it; so the 
woolmonger is made debtor, and the farmer ereditor: The farmer must pay his 
rent to the landlord with the proceed of the said wool; so the farmer is made 
debtor, and such landlord creditor: The landlord for his occasion buys goods of 
B mercer, grocer, vintner, or the like; then he is made debtor, and such mercer or 
other tradesman, ereditor; then peradventure such mercer, or other tradesman, 
buys goods of the same merchant that took up the first credit in the bank, and 
stands yet debtor there; but upon sale of goods to the mercer, or other tradesman, 
both clear their account in the bank, and such mercer, or other tradesman, is 
made debtor, and the said merchant creditor: Thus every man’s account is 
cleared, and so in all trades, as occasion presents; which way, if it be thought fit 
to be settled for a trial at London, I verily believe will be found so convenient, 
end such an encouragement to trade, by increase of the stock of the land, and be 
such an ease to the people, that it will be soon desired that others might be also 
settled at Edinburgh for Scotland, at Dublin for Ireland, and in some other chief 
rities and shire towns in England. as York. Bristol. and Exeter. &e., for the