Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. ManufacturerFowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
History
Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. Manufacturer
Fowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
Banks and banking -- United States; Currency question -- United States
_Fourth_: When a draft has been accepted, it becomes the promissory
note of the one accepting it, as he promises to pay it on the day named
in the draft. An accepted draft is only another form of a promissory
note, for if A owes B $1,000, and B draws upon A for that amount, and A
accepts the draft, A is in precisely the same position as he would have
been if he had sent B his promissory note for $1,000.
In the banking world a draft, after it has been accepted, is often
called and known as an "Acceptance."
_Fifth_: A Bill of Exchange in its ordinary or usual sense, is an order
of one person upon another to pay a third person a sum of money.
MR. MANUFACTURER: That is precisely what you said a draft was.
MR. BANKER: Just wait a moment, please, until I finish, and you will
note the difference. The Bill of Exchange is the medium of settling
accounts or debts between parties residing at a distance from each
other, without the intervention of money by exchanging checks or drafts.
MR. MANUFACTURER: Then they are identically the same thing except a
bill of exchange acquires its name from the fact that it settles debts
at a distance.
MR. BANKER: That is the exact distinction, if one is to be made at
all, and I think it will be well for us to make this distinction to
save confusion in our conversation, although in the ordinary and usual
language of the street, or the business world, the terms, or words,
"draft," "acceptance" and "Bill of Exchange" are used indiscriminately
the one for the other.
If the definition of Mr. Lawyer stands, and I think it is a very good
one, when he said "the science of exchange is to make one debt pay
another debt," the science of Bills of Exchange is to make one debt
pay another debt at a distant point. This is not a distinction fully
without a difference, because it helps us to classify the transactions
and distinguish them in a way as we go along.
A simple illustration is this: A, who lives in Boston, owes B, who
lives in San Francisco, $1,000, and C, who lives in San Francisco, owes
D, who lives in Boston, $1,000. B and D could exchange drafts with each
other; then B and D could collect each other's drafts. But B could sell
his draft on A to C for $1,000 and C could pay his debt of $1,000 to
D by forwarding him the draft on A. D would then collect the draft on
A. It will be seen at once that this transaction has saved the expense
of sending $1,000 in money from Boston to San Francisco, and also of
sending $1,000 in money from San Francisco to Boston at great expense
by express. This transaction between Boston and San Francisco is known
and called a transaction in Domestic Exchange.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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