The term commercial paper, as we are using it, applies to such promissory notes and bills of exchange as belong to this credit system. It does not apply to such notes and bills when they owe their existence to credit operations of a different kind, such for example as accommodation loans or investment operations. Indeed, the essential characteristic of commercial paper is not revealed in the form of the credit document but in the fact that it is a link in this chain of exchange operations by which modern commerce is carried on. This use of the term should also be distinguished from the one common among bankers and others. In this popular usage these documents are called commercial paper because they are themselves objects of commerce. In our use of the term the adjective "commercial" applies to them only when they play the role of intermediary in a process of exchange through credit. In this sense it is a matter of indifference whether they pass through the hands of brokers or not, and the fact of their being objects of purchase and sale does not confer the quality of commercial paper upon documents having an origin and character other than that above described. _2. The Operation of Discount_ Every person in this chain of credit is confronted with the problem of paying his debts as they mature by the use of the amounts due him from other people. Since it is rarely possible to arrange maturities on both sides in such a way that the amounts due to be paid him at a given date shall at least equal those he is due to pay on that date, some means of transforming claims against other people due in the future into present means of payment must be found. The one universally employed is the discount of commercial paper. By this is meant the exchange at a bank of his own promissory notes due at times when debts of equal or greater amount due him mature, or of bills of exchange drawn against his debtors, for cash or credits on a checking account. These latter are available as means of payment at any time. As a consideration for this accommodation, the bank charges interest for the period intervening before the maturity of the paper discounted. Sometimes this charge is paid at the time the paper is purchased and sometimes at the date of its maturity. The term "discount" technically means taking interest in advance by making available as means of present payment in any of the above mentioned forms a sum less than the amount the bank expects to collect at the date of the maturity of the discounted paper. If the interest is paid when the discounted paper matures, the process is technically called a loan. However, since the time of collecting interest makes no essential difference in the nature of the transaction, the process is commonly described as the discount of commercial paper, regardless of whether the interest is collected in advance or not. _3. The Conduct of Checking Accounts_