Q. A large percentage of the stock exchange business is really handled through the incorporated banks, is it not?
A. Yes. We ourselves have fifty members on the stock exchange.
Q. You mean that the Deutsche Bank has fifty men, members of the stock exchange, who trade there on the floor?
A. Yes. There is quite a difference, however, in our method of handling the business from that followed in New York. We do not have the margin system. Most of our customers who do not pay in full pay at least for half the amount involved in the purchase.
Q. Are the clearing-house associations important factors in the cities in Germany?
A. No. They are not associations of importance or power, but merely pieces of machinery through which cheques are cleared.
Q. You all go to the Reichsbank to clear?
A. Yes; once a day. There are 14 clearing houses and 160 members in the Empire.
Q. What taxes do you have to pay?
A. We pay to the State 4 per cent. on our income remaining after deduction of 3-1/2 per cent. of our share capital, which is exempt, and to the city of Berlin 4 per cent. on our income. All banks pay on the same basis.