[2 
MONEY 
increase the aggregate demand for coin in just the 
same way as, other things being equal, an increase 
in the number of persons with separate houses will 
increase the demand for houses. Such an increase 
may of course be brought about by an increase of 
population if the additional numbers do not consist 
entirely of very small children, very infirm or aged 
persons, paupers and others who have no separate 
holdings of coin. That qualification suggests that 
an increase may also be brought about by increasing 
the proportion of the people having separate holdings 
and by increasing the number of institutions with 
separate holdings: for example, when a number of 
old people were taken out of the workhouses and 
given money upon which to maintain themselves, a 
large number of new holdings were created, each 
old-age pensioner now having his little stock : and 
when a new company for supplying anything is 
established, a fresh separate holding of coin is almost 
always set up. This part of the subject presents no 
difficulty. 
Given the number of separate holdings, the aggre- 
gate amount of coin will depend on the magnitude 
of the average separate holding. The foundation 
of a person’s or an institution’s want of such a 
holding of coin is easy to see: it is the necessity or 
convenience of having means of payment at hand. 
The prudent shopkeeper takes care not to leave his 
till wholly without coin, because he fears a customer 
may walk out in a huff if he has to say he has ““ no 
change ”’; the prudent housewife must have enough 
coin all through Sunday (when she may be spending 
nothing beyond 14. or 3d. to the church collection) to 
pay for last week’s washing when the cart calls for 
this week’s early on Monday; the prudent citizen 
does not literally invest his last penny in War-bonds 
as requested by the War-Savings Committee, because