In the year 1858 the Country Clearing system was established. Under this arrangement all cheques on country banks held by other banks are passed through the Clearing House into the hands of the London agents of the banks on which they are drawn. The London agent sends by post each night to the various country banks which he represents, a parcel of cheques consisting of the whole of the cheques on each respective country bank which have been passed to him through the clearing. Each of the country banks has thus but one remittance to deal with each morning, instead of numerous remittances from banks situated all over the country. On the other hand, the trouble to which each bank was formerly put of forwarding all country cheques received direct to the various banks on which they might be drawn was done away with. The West End and suburban banks of London cannot, by reason of distance, be directly represented in the Clearing House. A system, however, is in operation by which practically the total of their daily transactions becomes merged in the total figure of each day’s clearing. Cheques presented to these banks by other banks are paid by what is known as a “payment.” A “payment” is in effect a draft on their head office or clearing agent, and these drafts are passed through the Clearing House. By these various developments it has come about that the vast majority of bills and cheques passing through the hands of bankers, throughout the country, become focussed in the London Clearing House, and the returns of that institution, showing the total of the daily transactions with which it has dealt, consequently afford a good barometer of the state of trade throughout the country, the figures rising or falling as prosperity or depression affects our commercial condition. The returns are now published weekly, and the figures there shown are stupendous in their amount—the average daily clearing on ordinary days for the year 1902 amounting to £15,559,600, and on Stock Exchange settling days to £38,961,800, while the grand total for the year amounted to the record figure of £10,028,742,000. Without going into detail as to the exact mode of procedure carried out in the working of the clearing system, we will roughly delineate the manner in which the transactions are brought to a head at the close of each day’s work. The clerks of each bank represented in the Clearing House make out a summary at the end of each day, showing the amount of the “articles” (cheques, bills, and drafts) which they have handed to the representatives of other banks, and the amount of the articles handed to them by other banks, and the difference of these two figures shows the net amount which has to be received or paid as the result of the aggregate of all their transactions.