ture and degree of
their specialization, in legal status, and in the place they occupy in
the system to which they belong. Some banks devote the major portion
of their effort to the conduct of exchanges and are called
_commercial_ banks, others to investment banking and are called
_investment_ banks. The most common subclasses under the latter head
are savings banks, land or mortgage banks, and bond houses. Savings
banks specialize in the collection and investment of small savings;
land banks are primarily intermediaries between capitalists and people
who wish to invest capital in land, building operations, and
agriculture; and bond houses are intermediaries between capitalists
and those who wish to invest capital in industrial, commercial, and
transportation enterprises, or loan it to states, cities, or other
public corporations.

Commercial banks rarely confine themselves exclusively to the conduct
of exchanges. Most of them also conduct savings departments and invest
the funds intrusted to them through such departments in agricultural,
industrial, or commercial enterprises or loan them to public
corporations. Commercial banking, however, is their main concern,
their other departments being side issues of greater or less
importance according to circumstances. Investment banks also
frequently carry on commercial banking as a side issue. These two
lines of business are sometimes mixed in such proportions as to render
classification difficult.

From a legal point of view the banks of nearly all countries may be
classified as _private_ or unincorporated, and _incorporated_,
sometimes also called joint-stock banks. Private banks are started by
individuals or firms, like any other private enterprise, without the
formality of application for permission to some public officer, and
without compliance with a set of legally prescribed regulations. They
are subject to the laws of the country governing all kinds of private
business enterprises and sometimes to special laws applying
specifically to them. In some of the states of the United States such
banks are prohibited by law.

Incorporated banks are usually started by private initiative but owe
their actual legal existence and status to a special law, to the
requirements of which they must conform before they are permitted to
do business. Their right to do business is usually evidenced by a
document known as a charter, executed and delivered by a public
officer legally end