_d._ Bank Deposits. We are studying in order the forms of commercial Credits, and we have now come to that one which is central in the operations of Banking, and accordingly this is the place for us to understand clearly what a Bank is, who a Banker is, and what are the motives actuating at once the Banker and his Customers. A BANK IS AN INSTITUTION FOR THE CREATION, MANAGEMENT, AND EXTINCTION OF CREDITS. Money of any kind plays a very subordinate part in the general operations of banks, which live and move and have their being in the sphere of pure Credits. _Bankers are buyers and sellers of credits._ As merchants are dealers in commodities, so bankers are dealers in credits, buying (1) some credits with other credits, (2) some credits with money, and (3) money also with credits. Before unfolding these three operations of bankers in their motives and profits, a glance backward to the origin of banks would be a help to us in grasping their nature and benefits. The word "bank" meant originally a mass or pile or ridge of earth, as we still say, a _sand-bank_, and the _banks_ of a river. When first applied to commercial transactions, the word had a different meaning from what it has at present, although the idea of _credit_ has inhered in it from the first: in 1171, the Republic of Venice, being at war, ordered a forced loan from its citizens, and promised to pay interest on it at 5%; and certificates were issued for the sums paid in, and public commissioners were appointed to manage the payment of the interest and the transfers of the certificates, which were made negotiable. The Italian word applied to such a public loan is _monte_, but as the Germans were then strong in Italy, the German equivalent word, _bank_, came to be used alongside of it and instead of it. It meant this common contribution of the citizens to the wants of the State, represented by the mass of the certificates, and came to be applied also to the _place_ where the commissioners paid the interest and transferred the shares. Two other such loans were contracted there afterwards, and an English writer, in 1646, quoted by Macleod, speaks of the "_three bankes of Venice_," meaning these three public debts, including the evidences of them and the place where they were managed.