[Footnote 90: The deposits in the Argentine banks at present amount to nearly £80,000,000.] As the latest sign of progress we may mention the establishment of the Clearing-House, which commenced operations in 1893, upon the model of the London Clearing-House, under the able management of the under-manager of the Bank of London and the Rio de la Plata, Mr Hogg. This institution, as its name indicates, serves to strike the balances of the sums which the various banks may owe one another, the balances only being actually paid over. The total sum represented by the operations of the Clearing-House in 1908 was over £352,000,000. This figure includes the transactions of the principal banks of Buenos Ayres, with the exception of the National Bank, which does not make use of the Clearing-House. Between 1893 and 1899 the business done at the Clearing-House underwent a notable and continual increase, and in 1899 amounted to more than £350,000,000. Since that time its operations temporarily decreased in value, owing to the suppression of the gold premium, which put an end to exchange speculations, which formerly kept the Clearing-House busy; so that in 1903 and 1904 the total amount of the operations was barely £264,000. Since 1904, however, these figures have gradually increased, and in 1907 and 1908 they once more exceeded £350,000,000. To-day the business is purely commercial, rendering any exact comparison with the times when speculation played the principal part extremely difficult. But if we could subtract this latter element we should certainly find that the compensations based on commercial operations have greatly increased, since the figures of 1899, although less by those representing speculative transactions, have not appreciably diminished. _The Bank of the Nation._——To complete this account of the banks of Buenos Ayres and their operations, we must give an account of the working of the most important of them all: the _Banco del Nacion_. This bank is of especial interest, on account of its relations with the Argentine Government, which guarantees all its liabilities.