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1: The pure theory of money
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32

A TREATISE ON MONEY

BK. I

United States 1

Cash-deposits.

Money.

Percentage ofMoney to Total.

1919

$1,000,000

18,990

$1,000,000

3,825

17

1920 4

21,080

4,209

17

1921

19,630

3,840

16

1922

20,470

3,583

15

1923

22,110

3,836

15

1924

23,530

3,862

14

1925

25,980

3,810

13

1926

25,570

3,777

13

Thus, even during the eight years following the war,the proportion of actual cash to the total of cash andcash-deposits in the United States fell from aboutone-sixth to as little as one-eighth. Since, as we shallsee subsequently, cash-deposits are turned over muchfaster than cash, the preponderance of the former interms of the volume of payments effected would beeven greater. If we include time-deposits we find thatState-Money held by the Public is less than 10 percent of Current Money.

In the case of Great Britain we are thrown backon more precarious guesses. But I estimate thatin 1926-28 cash-deposits ( i.e . excluding fixed de-posits) in Great Britain may have been £ 1 , 075 , 000,000and notes circulating in the hands of the public£ 250 , 000 , 000 , in which case the latter were 19 percent of the total or, say, one-fifth. Including fixeddeposits, we find that, as in the United States, State-Money held by the Public is about 10 per cent ofCurrent Money.

Thus in Great Britain and the United States andalso increasingly elsewherethe use of Bank-Money is now so dominant that much less confusion will be

1 The figures for cash-deposits are taken from Mitchell, Business Cycles ,p. 126, and those for money in circulation outside the banks from The Reviewof Economic Statistics, July 1927, p. 136.