88 BANKING THEORIES IN UNITED STATES
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This renders a given quantity of land, labor, and capital, more
effective, “hence credit under all its productive forms, should be
comprised in any estimate of wealth.” !
Credit is in certain respects to be preferred to money as a
medium of payment. The mechanic with one hundred dollars in
cash can live without working, so long as his money lasts. On the
other hand, the mechanic who can command credit to the extent
of a hundred dollars “has nearly the same capacity to earn money,
as the other; but his privilege will not sustain him in idleness, or
dissipation. It can only be of use to him, through the medium of
his industry,” unless he be dishonest and does not contemplate
repayment.2 Honesty, skill, and industry are the conditions of
high credit. The presumption that productive goods will be put
to good use is greater, therefore, when they are in the control of
one who has secured his command of them through credit, than
when they are placed at the disposal of another who has gained
his purchasing power, let us say, through inheritance.’
But individuals with loanable funds are not likely to know in
whom to repose their confidence. ‘Hence, to give a more general
efficiency to the credit of individuals, banking institutions are
established ; which by the notoriety of their wealth and punctuality,
 obtain universal credit; and by their extensive means of
information, are enabled duly to estimate the degree of confldence
 to which traders may be entitled.” *
To be sure, evidences of credit cannot be added to the nation’s
aggregate capital, since an offsetting debit exists in every case.
But, while it is true that “the nominal aggregate of the commercial
 capital is not increased, the efficiency of the whole, and consequently
 the real value is increased.” Existence of the possibility
 of borrowing the purchasing power that one can profitably
employ enhances the wealth of a country over what it would
otherwise be, “although the quantity of substantial capital, and
the field of profitable employment be equally great.” 8

1 Hare, Brief View of the Policy and Resources of the United States (1810), Pp.
51-54.
2 Jbid., p. 35.
4 Tbid.. ». 60.