There is no need to discover in this functional evolution the realisation of any new principle--undeniable bonds of filiation attach it manifestly to the Bank of Amsterdam, whose system of clearing accounts Adam Smith has so admirably described, and in a still more distant past to the Bank of Venice, which, more perhaps than the Bank of St-George, served as a type to the Bank of Amsterdam; only like the most advanced modern institutions of credit and settling up, it has, over the primitive institutions, the advantage of perfections of means, of rapidity, and of an ever-growing importance in its operations, and of an ever increasing economy of money;--it has as its own peculiar features conditions of special expansion, valuable means of control and specially a capacity of adaptation to a system of credit institutions which can make it one of the instruments of the transformation of the monetary system. The Austrian Imperial Government in carrying out the reforms which are the subject of this paper does not directly pursue the solution of the monetary problem, but is primarily occupied with the financial interest of the Savings Bank. As its able secretary, M. Tobisch, has explained, the law of May 28^{th} 1882, of which the text is given further on, in organising the Postal Savings Bank, caused no doubt a considerable number of deposits to be made, but their average importance was so feeble and they involved such general expenses, that the cost almost completely absorbed the results of the investments. In order to distribute these general expenses over a greater mass of monies and to realise a larger clear profit, that is to cause more considerable deposits to be made by especially interesting tradesmen and working-men to have recourse to the medium of the Savings Bank, a notice of the Minister of Commerce of Oct. 29 1883, authorised the depositors of over 100 florins to draw cheques on the Central Office at Vienna. Originally the depositor remained the holder of his account-book, but from Dec. 1 1886, the deposit of all such books at the Central Office in Vienna became obligatory for those who wished to take advantage of the cheque service. The institution of this service had a considerable influence on the progress of the amount of deposits; before the reform in 1883 the total deposits amounted to 8,176,889 florins, a year after in 1884, they reached 56,586,461 florins, of which 46,223,539 was connected with the cheque service.