19. We have now to give an example of the use of Credit which may surprise our readers, and of which we have not seen the slightest notice any where else.

Sixteen hundred years ago Diophantus said "Defect multiplied into defect gives existence"That is - x - = +. So also Roman Law said - "Qui obligatione liberatur videtur cepisse quid;" as Von Savigny and all the Civilians say - "The Release of a Debt is in all cases the Gift of an equal amount of Money."

Thus in Commercial Algebra a Release from a Debt is in all cases absolutely equivalent to a Payment in Money, in strict accordance with the principle that - x - is always equivalent to + X +.

When it is published to the world that the Bank of England has a paid up Capital of £14,000,000, and that the various Joint Stock Banks of London have paid up Capitals of these magnitudes -

£

London and Westminster Bank ..

2,000,000

Union Bank . • • .

1,200,000

London Joint Stock Bank .... •

1,200,000

London and County Bank . • • •

1,000,000

and many others of lesser amount, most persons except those very few who are conversant with the mechanism of banking, believe that these Banks have those sums paid up in hard money.