and a week or a month later
receive them to expend at a less value. Speculative debtors, on the other
hand, always thrive on depreciating currency, paying their debts in what
costs less exertion. Under appreciating currency, the creditors gain, be
they bankers or workmen.

_Banking._--The peculiar convenience for saving found by experience in the
use of each of these methods of settlement in exchange leads to a natural
commingling of all. Coins serve some purposes best, and accounts have a
limited range; notes of hand are often desirable, and paper money, if
safe, is universally convenient. This natural combination has led to a
more systematic arrangement for handling various kinds of currency, called
banking. The most obvious addition to the machinery of exchange in the
system of banking is the possibility of immediate transfer of property
right in a bank deposit by check and account, or by a draft in account
between banks, or by bills of exchange in more distant transactions. The
bank deposit is made up of individual wealth, or titles to wealth,
supposed to be immediately available for use in exchange. It may consist
of all the kinds of currency described or conceivable. Checks are orders
upon these individual accounts or deposits, and by their means exchanges
are made with great ease and little risk between individuals in the same
neighborhood or even in distant cities or distant countries. The cost of
storing, handling or transferring any form of currency is reduced to a
minimum. So far-reaching is this comparatively modern machine of exchange
that it is properly assumed to be the means of settling 90 per cent of all
exchanges, domestic and foreign, with almost no use of money in any of its
numerous forms. Its importance as a machine of commerce entitles banking
to a more distinct consideration, and chapter XI will be devoted to the
subject.

_Deferred settlement._--In certain stages of civilization exchanges
involve, not simply present wealth, but prospective accumulation. A farmer
may purchase his farm upon the assurance of crops and stock to be raised
in a series of years. In this exchange final settlement is deferred by
notes payable at definite future dates, the promise to pay being secured
by a deed in trust, a mortgage deed or individual endorsement. If many
individuals are united, a purchase may be made by means of issuing more
formal notes called bonds, the property of the company being pledged for
the pay