Publisher's Synopsis
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. As we have seen, the business of banking consists in getting a common fund of money, and in lending a part of it. With this general conception is associated the discounting of bills of exchange, the collection of notes and drafts and the issuing of circulating notes. The business may be conducted by one person, who is called a banker; or by partners, as in any ordinary business, who also are called bankers. Again, a number of men may join their capital under a State law, and organize a State bank or association, the capital of which is divided into shares. Capitalists may also unite under the laws of the United States, and form a National banking association. Under these varying forms a banking business is done. We may look at the reasons why men prefer one form to another. If a man has considerable means and enjoys the confidence of the community, he may prefer to engage in banking alone, unfettered by State or National laws. He may conduct his business in his own -way; and if the people do not like it they need not patronize him. A firm may do the same thing. They may be a law unto themselves. But when men organize under a State law, they are bound by the law. They are subject to inspection. They must pay a tax on the amount of money used in their business. If! they issue promises to pay, a coin reserve must be kept to pay them. By a National bank is meant not that the Government owns or runs it, but authorizes its creation and prescribes its, mode of doing business. Every association under this law, whethex I in Maine or in Texas, is governed by the same principles, is subject to the same inspection, uses the same blanks in making returns to the Treasury Department at Washington, and is under the same penalties for the violation ...
