buyer, and the discount of the bill by the seller's bank. In
foreign and in some branches of domestic trade, the banker's bill is
used on account of its more general acceptability as an object of
discount, such bills usually being discountable by the central bank
and by banks far distant from the place in which the bill originated.

In case a buyer desires to furnish his creditors with bills of this
kind, he arranges with his banker for a line of "acceptance" credit,
which permits people who sell goods to him to draw bills upon his
banker instead of himself, the banker agreeing to accept the bill and
guaranteeing its payment at maturity. The seller will usually have no
difficulty in discounting such a bill at his own bank, no matter how
far removed it may be from the home of the buyer, the character of the
accepting bank being known throughout the financial world. "Acceptance
lines" are usually granted only on condition that the customer agrees
to supply the bank with the funds necessary for meeting the accepted
bills as they fall due, and to pay a fee for the accommodation. Ample
security that these obligations will be met is usually demanded.

_2. The English System_

In the English system, the central bank is the Bank of England, with
the possible exception of a few private banks, the oldest financial
institution in the country. It is privately owned and privately
governed. Its board of directors, chosen by the stockholders, consists
of twenty-four persons, a portion of whom are practically life
members, being regularly reelected when their terms of office expire.
The others usually serve alternate years only, vacancies being filled
by promising young men selected from the business houses of London.
The oldest director is regularly elected to the office of governor of
the Bank, and the next oldest to that of deputy governor, both serving
two years, the deputy governor regularly succeeding to the office of
governor, and the ex-governors forming the life members of the board
and constituting a kind of advisory council to the governor, and known
as the Board of Treasury.

The head office of the Bank of England is in London, and there are
eleven branches, two in London and nine in the provinces. By a law
passed in 1844, the Bank was divided into two departments, called
respectively the banking and the issue departments, the latter having
exclusive charge of the issue of notes, and the former of all other
branches