igh an interest as the law allows, and would give
more if they could avoid the penalty, which, in all countries, has been
attached to accepting more than the regulated sum; a sum regulated
merely to prevent the effect of competition, which might induce
people to give more than in the end they would find they could afford
to pay.

When capital becomes over abundant, the very reverse takes place; the
lenders become rivals, and offer to lend at an under rate of interest.

The first effect of this is, that people who were but scantily supplied
with capital before borrow, and carry on business more at ease, so that
more capital is employed in business, and new employments are found
out for capital.

The usual employments for a superabundant capital are improving
lands, building houses, erecting machines, digging canals, &c. for the
use of trade; and finally, giving longer credit to merchants in other
countries, {137} as well as to those who are running in debt in their
own. The stock on hand in manufactured goods increases something
also. But when all these have taken place, to as great an extent as
wanted, then the money begins to flow into other countries. By
degrees, more money is sent away than should go, and the persons
who are the proprietors of it frequently follow.

If the capital that leaves a country were only that which cannot find
employment in it, the harm would not be great, though it would tend
to enrich other countries, and bring them nearer a level. But that is not
the case, the advantage of lending money abroad, if regularly paid at a
higher interest than can be obtained at home, induces people to draw
their money from trade, and vest it in the hands of foreigners. The
Venetians, the Genoese, the Dutch, the Hanseatic Towns, and the
cities of Flanders, did this; and the capital, which, when employed at
home, formerly maintained perhaps one hundred people in affluence
and industry, only supported one single family living in indolence and
splendid penury. {138}

After being in possession of money for a considerable time, men
prefer a certain employment at a low interest to one attended with risk,
even where the interest is higher; and when great sums have been got
by trade, those who have got them retire and live on the interest,
which men, who have only gained a small capital cannot do.

There are many other circumstances, besides the abundance of capital,
that tend to carry it away from a wealthy coun