None of these services are performed by banks exclusively. For the safekeeping of valuables, and sometimes of money, there are in some places safe deposit companies to which the term "banks" is not applied. In the making of payments the post office departments of governments and express companies participate, and in the making of loans and investments brokers, loan companies, lawyers, etc., participate. The peculiarity of banking institutions consists not in the performance of any one of these services, but in the fact that they specialize in them all, or in a combination of them. Merely to keep money and valuables on deposit, or to act as paymaster, or to make loans, or to sell bonds, stocks, and mortgages would not make an institution a bank or an individual a banker; but to make a business of performing most or all of these services for the public involves the use of certain machinery and certain methods of procedure, and the assumption of a role in the nation's economy which is distinctive and peculiar, and which has set these institutions apart in every country as objects of legislation and of scientific treatment, as well as in the thought and regard of the people. _2. The Economic Functions of Banks_ Viewed from the standpoint of the nation rather than from that of individuals, the functions of banks may be described as those of intermediaries in exchanges and in the investment of capital. In the former capacity they supply the world with the major part of its medium of exchange and serve as distributing agents for that portion of the supply which comes from other sources. They create a medium of exchange through a process of bookkeeping which is world-wide in extent, and through which the mutual indebtedness of individuals, cities, and other subdivisions of countries and nations, brought about by purchases and sales on credit, are offset without the use of money. The practice of depositing surplus funds with banks for safekeeping and consequently of using them as paymasters has resulted in the reliance of everybody upon banks for currency in any form, and has thus thrown upon them the responsibility of directly utilizing all the sources of money supply. Thus while the mints of the United States and most other countries coin gold bullion, and supply subsidiary silver and copper and nickel coins to private persons on the same terms as to banks, as a matter of fact few private persons take advantage of this privilege, finding it more convenient and profitable to get the coin they want from banks. The same is true of government notes in countries in which such notes constitute a portion of the currency.