David Ricardo
DAVID RICARDO  Macroknow Library
   

   
Principles.
" . . . Against such panics, Banks have no security, on any system; from their very nature they are subject to them, as at no time can there be in a Bank, or in a country, so much specie or bullion as the monied individuals of such country have a right to demand. Should every man withdraw his balance from his banker on the same day, many times the quantity of Bank notes now in circulation would be insufficient to answer such a demand."1a* PLATO KANT RAND


       
   
   
 

* Italics in the original.

1 David Ricardo (1772-1823). On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). Volume I of The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Edited by Piero Sraffa with the collaboration of M.H. Dobb. The Royal Economic Society, 1951. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
a On Currency and Banks, at 352-372. See especially 358-359.