f holding it, and that
the amount it earned should be only such as those who borrowed it could
fairly make it earn. This was invention No. 5: _The Bank_.

As the years followed one another, "the bank" became one of the most
important of the people's institutions and grew in number and variety.
There came to be many different forms of banks. For instance, _national
banks_, which, under the control and regulation of the Government,
became depositories for the circulation of the Government's money and
were privileged to lend money to individuals or corporations with or
without collateral. Funds confided by the people to these national banks
had always to be ready for their owners. A second form was the
_savings-bank_, which grew out of the requirements of small depositors
and was governed by the laws of its community. The savings-bank used and
safeguarded money confided to it in small sums, and these amounts could
be withdrawn only by their owners in person, after an agreed term of
notice. The savings-bank was allowed to lend only on real estate or
certain other securities, the character of which was rigidly regulated
by the law. In consequence, it could use its funds for long-time loans
and mortgages, so it earned larger rates of interest than the national
banks. The _trust company_ was a third variation, coming somewhere
between the national and the savings-bank, and was regulated, as was the
latter, by the laws of the community in which it existed. The trust
company, too, received deposits from the people, but was allowed a
broader latitude in employing them. It was also authorized to engage in
certain other business--for example, to act as manager for a deceased
person's estate and even to buy and sell securities. Because of the
extra-hazardous business in which it engaged and from which the other
two institutions were legally debarred, the trust company earned and
paid larger rates of interest to its depositors, and the men who
handled its funds were allowed to take for their own remuneration
profits in excess of those derived by the custodians of national and
savings-banks.

Another deficiency in the business structure growing out of the
increasing prosperity of the people was next provided for. When an
enterprise became so large as to necessitate several owners for its
conduct, the prescribing and defining of the relation of these owners to
each other and to the common property became a task of increasing
difficul