ment upon methods for quickening
exchanges through such organizations, some of which have been of great
advantage and some have brought disaster. The modern system of banking is
the result of all these centuries of experience, a history of which cannot
be given here.

_Bank described._--A brief description of the most modern form of banks
under state or national restrictions will help to understand how these
institutions serve the world of commerce.

In simplest terms, a bank is a company founded for the sole purpose of
dealing in coin and current certificates of credit of every form, the
prime object being the convenience of people in making exchanges of any
kind. Sometimes a bank is called upon simply to make change, or, as we
say, to break a valuable coin or a bill of large denomination into smaller
pieces. On the border land between two countries the banker serves a
traveler by exchanging the coins of the country he leaves for coins of the
country he enters.

Often the bank, equipped with safe protection against fire or robbers,
receives the wealth of others in any form of money for safe keeping, with
provision for its being paid when it is needed, whenever and wherever the
owner directs. The same bank may be asked to exchange the money in its
possession for notes of individuals payable on demand or at definite
future time. It may even issue notes of the firm in place of the
individual notes received, acquaintance of a community with the standing
of the bank as a dealer in money making its notes circulate where
individual notes would not. In this case the wider credit of the bank is
exchanged for the limited credit of individuals. In the end a well
established bank in close association with a system of banks is expected
to do any service that has to do with either money or credit, so long as
the credit approximates cash transactions, and has not drifted into
overdue debts requiring courts and officials for collection.

So important are all these functions of a bank to the interests of society
that distinct provision is needed in the law of the land for establishing
the bank and maintaining its efficiency. The double system of government
in our country known as state and national leads to two classes of banks,
called state or national according as they are organized under authority
of state government or under national laws.

_State banks._--The independent laws of any state are supposed to provide
such restrict