10. Besides the state of national indebtedness, arising out of commercial operations, there are other causes which seriously affect the Exchanges. Formerly England, being more abundant in money and material resources than men, used to subsidise foreign powers to a great extent: and the method of transmitting such a loan to the best advantage to the remitting country is an operation of considerable nicety and delicacy. An actual and sudden withdrawal of a very large amount of bullion from a commercial country would cause the most disastrous consequences when so many engagements had to be met at a fixed time. When such necessities arise the operation is effected by Bills of Exchange. These events however occur but rarely, and are not the ordinary operations of banking, and therefore to give an account of how they are effected would be beyond the limits of this work. If any readers desire to see practical examples of such operations we may refer them to our Principles of Economical Philosophy and Theory and Practice of Banking, where some are given, especially the most gigantic one ever effected, the payment of the indemnity by France.

Public Securities however of all sorts, Bonds of Commercial Companies now form a regular article of import and export between various countries, and affect the Exchanges exactly like any other merchandise: but as these all pass through the Post Office, and not through the Custom House, it is impossible to have any record of their quantity: and consequently the subject of the Exchanges is a hopeless puzzle to any persons who only look to the official returns of merchandise published by the Board of Trade.

There is, lastly, to be considered the sums required by residents abroad for their expenditure. The drafts of the great English and Russian families on their bankers at home, affect the exchanges, exactly in the same manner as any other drafts.