Adam Smith：The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter III, Paragraph 1120

No demand can be made upon the bank, but by means of a recipice or receipt. The smaller mass of bank money, for which the receipts are expired, is mixed and confounded with the much greater mass for which they are still in force; so that, though there may be a considerable sum of bank money, for which there are no receipts, there is no specific sum or portion of it which may not at any time be demanded by one. The bank cannot be debtor to two persons for the same thing; and the owner of bank money who has no receipt, cannot demand payment of the bank till he buys one. In ordinary and quiet times, he can find no difficulty in getting one to buy at the market price, which generally corresponds with the price at which he can sell the coin or bullion it entitles him to take out of the bank.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator：Book IV, Chapter III, paragraph 1120 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Exact match

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