Reverting to our statement, we find that the increases and decreases of the various totals balance each other; and if the differences agree, then the assets and liabilities, on adding the Bank's capital of £14,553,000 to the latter, must also balance each other, for the simple reason that the Bank keeps its books by double entry. The best system of bookkeeping which can possibly be adopted is the simplest system, because the very fact of accounts being complex and involved is sure to result in a multiplicity of mistakes, which prove that the system is faulty. In double entry there must be a debit for every credit; so every sum debited to one account in the books of the Bank of England is credited to another or to others; and as the assets and liabilities in the statement tally, therefore the balances in the last two columns, which are the result of multitudinous debits and credits made during the week, must agree also. But how is it possible for an outsider to follow these internal movements? He simply cannot. Consequently his deductions made from the differences shown week by week are sometimes very wide of the mark, and, for his own reputation's sake, it would be wiser if he were to confine his remarks principally to the all-important questions of the ratio in the Banking Department and the bullion in the Issue Department. For instance, simply with the differences in question to go upon, it may be said that the return shows that the market has borrowed largely from the Bank, "Other Securities" being up over £5,000,000. Part of this amount increased "Other Deposits," and a transfer was also made to "Public Deposits" in order to pay the Government for £2,000,000 of Treasury bills, while the accretion to "Government Securities" seems to indicate that the Government borrowed a certain sum from the Bank on Ways and Means, and that loans were made to the market on this class of security. In London the "loan account" system is greatly in evidence among the banks. That is to say, when a customer is granted a loan for, say, £10,000, his current account is credited £10,000, and a loan account, opened in his name, is debited £10,000. The interest is calculated upon the loan account, and the advantage resulting to the banks is too evident to call for explanation in these pages. When loans are made by the Bank of England, accounts which increase "Other Securities" are debited, and other accounts, which increase "Other Deposits" are credited--if the loans are made to the public. Should the loans be made to the Government, "Public Deposits" and "Government Securities" also increase proportionately from the same cause. The Bank, because it keeps the bankers' accounts, occupies a peculiar position in relation to these entries, and that position will be discussed in a later chapter.