The State puts in circulation bits of paper on which their
 various denominations, say £1, £5, &c., are printed. In
 so far as they actually take the place of gold to the same amount, their
 movement is subject to the laws that regulate the currency of money itself.
 A law peculiar to the circulation of paper money can spring up only from
 the proportion in which that paper money represents gold. Such a law exists;
 stated simply, it is as follows: the issue of paper money must not exceed
 in amount the gold (or silver as the case may be) which would actually
 circulate if not replaced by symbols. Now the quantity of gold which the
 circulation can absorb, constantly fluctuates about a given level. Still,
 the mass of the circulating medium in a given country never sinks below
 a certain minimum easily ascertained by actual experience. The fact that
 this minimum mass continually undergoes changes in its constituent parts,
 or that the pieces of gold of which it consists are being constantly replaced
 by fresh ones, causes of course no change either in its amount or in the
 continuity of its circulation. It can therefore be replaced by paper symbols.
 If, on the other hand, all the conduits of circulation were to-day filled
 with paper money to the full extent of their capacity for absorbing money,
 they might to-morrow be overflowing in consequence of a fluctuation in
 the circulation of commodities. There would no longer be any standard.
 If the paper money exceed its proper limit, which is the amount in gold
 coins of the like denomination that can actually be current, it would,
 apart from the danger of falling into general disrepute, represent only
 that quantity of gold, which, in accordance with the laws of the circulation
 of commodities, is required, and is alone capable of being represented
 by paper. If the quantity of paper money issued be double what it ought
 to be, then, as a matter of fact, £1 would be the money-name not
 of 1/4 of an ounce, but of 1/8 of an ounce of gold. The effect would be
 the same as if an alteration had taken place in the function of gold as
 a standard of prices. Those values that were previously expressed by the
 price of £1 would now be expressed by the price of £2.