The Banking Systems of Great Britain, France, Germany, & the United States of America [antikvár]

PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION A writer in a recent issue of the Banker's Magazine (U.S.A.) very well said that the future position of Commercial banking is assured because of the essential nature of the services performed. The writer went on to say-that the functions of Commercial banks are not outmoded and their processes of growth and adaptation to the changed requirements of the public, of business, and of Government persist. This is true not only in regard to banks in America, but in Great Britain and elsewhere as well, as we have endeavoured to show in the following pages. In regard to the requirements of our own Government, and the Enghsh Clearing and Scottish banks' endeavour to meet them, we have a striking illustration in the lending of large sums on temporary loan to the Treasury, during the later War period at very low rates of interest, an accommodation which has proved to be of material benefit to the auspicious Borrower. In the present edition, amongst new matter, reference will be found to the successive increases of the Fiduciary Issue of the Bank of England since 1939 to the present date, to the Central Bank Bill (Eire) in the Irish Section, also in the American Section, to the New York Clearing House, and its varied functions, and Member Bank Reserve requirements. INTRODUCTION The business of banking may be briefly defined as dealing in money and the instruments of credit. For the successful carrying-on of trade and commerce in a community, banks are indispensable. If this may be said regarding bygone times, it applies with greater force to the present day, when banks exercise so potent an influence in the sphere of credit and finance. Although there are certain forms of banking common more or less to most systems, each country has in some measure its distinctive type. In the early period of banking history, this feature was more marked than in later times. Instead of banks transacting, as they now do, all kinds of banking business, they confined their operations for the most part to one particular class. Thus, in some parts, banks were established for remittance and exchange business, while in other places they were only banks of deposit and discount. The success of banking greatly depends on the conditions under which it is carried on. It has been found to succeed best when, under careful and prudent management, it has been given a free and natural course, without unnecessary restrictions being imposed by the State. In this treatise dealing with the Banking Systems of Great Britain (embracing the distinctive English, Scottish, and Irish Systems), France, Germany, and the United States of America, various matters are dealt with relating to the subject. In particular, reference is made