Meanwhile, as the banking system grew, most of the ready money in the community came into the hands of the bankers. There was a perpetual coming and going, and paying in and paying out, but there was always among the bankers as a community a very large sum of money lying untouched, a sort of reservoir. It was nearly always very much more than two-thirds of the whole amount which the banks could be called on to pay. That is, the depositors never wanted a third of their deposits out at any one time. The art of a banker, therefore, consisted in knowing how to purchase with this idle money left in their hands fruitful objects for producing future wealth, in other words, “investing” it in “capital enterprises,” but always prudently keeping a large reserve ready to meet any demands which their depositors might suddenly make upon them. So far so good. The banking system up to this point in its development was an advantage to the community and to individuals. It enabled a large number of small sums which could not be used very well separately to be collected together for big enterprises. A thousand people, depositing a thousand pounds each, left a million pounds in the hands of the bankers, of which much more than half a million could be used at any time for “development,” that is, for buying instruments with which to develop natural resources. The nation would be richer if a deep shaft were sunk and coal were got out of the earth, but it would cost half a million to make that mine. No one of the thousand small depositors could have undertaken such a task: the bank, using all their monies together, could undertake it--and did so. The banking system thus rapidly increased the wealth of the country, and that was all to the good. People meanwhile felt their money to be secure, and they had the great advantage of being able to draw cheques for payments they had to make to those to whom they owed money, and of receiving cheques for money due to them instead of perpetually handling and carrying about large sums in metal--the whole passing through the bank and helping to keep this reservoir of wealth perpetually filled and available for use in investment. That state of affairs lasted to within the memory of men now living, and, as I have said, the banking system during that time was an advantage to everybody. There was nothing to be said against it. But then came (as there comes upon every human institution after a certain time) a further phase of development, in which the institution of banking produced certain perils and evils. Those perils and evils are increasing, and are producing the antagonism to the banks and to their power which everybody is beginning to express to-day, all over Europe and America, and which we must understand if we are to follow modern political economy. I will show you how these evils in the Banking system arose.