Marx noted a similar thing as described in the parliamentary commission discussion on the Bank Acts. It was noted that, as the Bank of England attempted to restrict the currency supply, firms in periods of prosperity and boom, simply by-passed that by increasing the volume and value of the credit transactions between themselves, using bills of exchange etc. They created their own currency. The only constriction on that becomes where they need to resort to bank credit, rather than this commercial credit. In other words, if a firm needs to convert a Bill of Exchange in to currency or bank notes, rather than allowing that bill to continue to circulate itself, they must redeem it at a Discount House or Merchant Bank. They redeem it at a discount, and how large this discount is depends on market rates of interest.
The discount house or merchant bank, obtains their currency, to buy the bills, from the Bank of England. Where the Bank of England sought to constrain the currency supply, it raised its interest rates to these banks. However, as Marx notes, in the discussions in the parliamentary commissions, it was clear that, in times of economic expansion, this posed no real problem. Firms were able to increase the mutual credit between them, so that the rate of interest charged by the Bank of England was irrelevant. Firms provided free credit in these transactions between themselves, up to say 30 days, and so, provided payment was made in that time, there was no interest.
If the economy was growing rapidly, a pottery firm could increase its purchase of clay from £100 to £150, let's say, which they bought on commercial credit from the clay suppliers, with 30 days to pay. In that 30 days, the pottery firm produces its ware and sells it, now obtaining the same 50% increase in its sales, and so is able to settle the bill to the clay supplier. But, as Marx notes, the consequence of all these mutual credit transactions is that there is no requirement for a corresponding 50% increase in currency supply. The pottery firm and clay supplier are only two participants in a whole series of related credit transactions between firms.
The clay supplier will buy materials and equipment and so on from other firms, also, on commercial credit. These other firms will do the same, including firms buying from the pottery firm on credit, whether pottery for their hotels, trains, ships, canteens etc., or porcelain insulators for electric grids, or sanitary-ware, sewage pipes and so on. As Marx notes, at the end of 30 days, all of these related credit transactions are netted off against each other, so that the only currency required is that to cover the net balance.
“... on the other hand, the alleged tax surcharges represent a real sum of values, namely, that produced by the labouring, value-producing class but appropriated by the monopolist class, and then this sum of values consists merely of unpaid labour; in this event, in spite of the man with the sword in his hand, in spite of the alleged tax surcharges and the asserted distribution value, we arrive once again - at the Marxian theory of surplus-value.” (p 242)
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