The bankers of the present day discount a large number of bills for their customers in the ordinary course of business. Bills obtained from this source, however, do not meet a banker’s requirements in several particulars. For one thing, the amount of bills offered directly to bankers for discount is not sufficient, as a general rule, to satisfy their demands; and, moreover, a banker has no power of regulating the supply of bills offered to him in this way. One day he may be asked to discount bills to a very large amount, when he is not anxious to increase the amount of his holding of bills; on another day he may wish to increase his holding, but none may come forward. And lastly, with bills offered for discount by ordinary customers a banker has no power of so picking his bills that he can ensure having a large amount of bills maturing at any given period, when he anticipates that he will require to increase his cash. But all these conditions can be met by dealing with the bill-brokers. A banker can obtain bills to any desired amount from the bill-brokers, he can regulate the supply of the same according to his wishes, and he can stipulate that the bills sent in by the bill-brokers are to mature within any given time—thirty days, sixty days, ninety days, and so on; and he is thus in a position to provide automatically for an expected demand for cash at certain times, by the maturing of bills. Bankers therefore find it easier, and, owing to the broker’s specialised knowledge of the position of parties, on the whole safer, to buy bills from the bill-brokers than to try to obtain directly all that they require. Bills so purchased possess a further advantage, for not only are they secured by the names on them, but, in addition, they usually carry the guarantee of the bill-brokers as well; and this, when dealing with large and wealthy firms, is a distinct advantage. It must also be remembered that there are a large number of banks—principally country banks—who are so situated that in the ordinary course of business they never have what is called “A1 paper” offered to them for discount, and yet they require to invest a certain amount of their funds in such bills. These institutions of necessity make use of the bill-brokers to satisfy their needs.