The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down?  They are now of value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good for anything?  They are taken because people are pretty sure that they can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think that he can pass them again?  And I assure you, Jack, that even I myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man in England from ever taking a bank-note any more.  If you should put five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, never see a farthing in exchange for it.

This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly explain to you how I might easily do the thing.  Mind, I do not say that I will do the thing.  Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any one that intends to do it.  But I will show you how I might do it; because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank.

You know, Jack, that forged notes pass till people find them out.  They keep passing very quietly till they come to the Bank, and there being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or owns them at the time, loses the amount of them.  Suppose now, that Tom were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig.  Dick would pay it to Bob for some tea.  Bob would send it up to London to pay his tea-man.  The tea-man would send it to the Bank.  The Bank would keep it, and give him nothing for it.  If the tea-man forgot whom he got it from, he must lose.  If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must lose it.  There must be a loss somewhere.

Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while put an end to all payments and all trade.  And if such great quantity can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the situation of your five pounds.  I will now show you, then, that I could do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease.

I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in bank-notes of various amounts.  There are fourteen different ways in which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul except the man to whom they should be confided.  The Banks might search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America.  They might do what they would.  They would never detect the cargo!