[184] Adapted from Geh. Oberfinanzrat Waldemar Mueller, The Organization of Credit and Banking Arrangements in Germany; Max Wittner and Siegfried Wolff, The Method of Payment by means of Bank-Account Transfers and the Use of Checks in Germany. Publications of the National Monetary Commission, Senate Document No. 508, 61st Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 117-271.
[185] In order to facilitate its giro business and reduce the friction to a minimum, the Reichsbank has special printed forms prepared for the various kinds of transactions, the use of which is made compulsory on the public. For a simple transfer of money from one customer to another, whether they be in the same town or in different places, the "red check" is employed, which is filled out by the party making the transfer and handed in to the bank. It is not a check in the proper sense of the term, but is so called because the printed forms resemble checks and are put up in books in the same way as checks. The word "check" does not occur in the printed matter of the blank; neither is the instrument transferable. When a number of payments are made simultaneously the party making the transfers is furnished with a blanket form on which the names of the individual firms and the various sums are entered and which has to be accompanied by a red check covering the aggregate amount. For the so-called "great banks" of Berlin, some of which have a volume of transfer transactions amounting to as much as one hundred transfers for each bank per diem, there are blanket forms which are of a different colour for each bank. When cash is wanted the so-called "white check" is employed. This is a legally constituted check. There are special printed forms for the use of those who have no account with the Reichsbank.
[186] Banks of issue were formerly numerous in Germany. Gradually, however, nearly all of them renounced the privilege of issue, as the laws relating to banking made their existence as banks of issue more and more difficult. At the present time there are only 4 such banks besides the Reichsbank, viz.: the Bayerische Notenbank, the Wurttembergische Notenbank, the Sachsische Bank, and the Badische Bank.
[187] Adapted from Robert Franz, The Statistical History of the German Banking System, 1888-1907, Publications of the National Monetary Commission, Senate Document No. 508, 61st Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 7-115.
[188] Adapted from C.R. Fay, Co-operation at Home and Abroad, pp. 42-51, 56. P.S. King and Son, London. 1908.
[189] Occasionally even as low as 1d. or less.
[190] Adapted from Interviews on the Banking and Currency Systems of England, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, Publications of the National Monetary Commission, Senate Document No. 405, 61st Congress, 2d. Session, pp. 452-468.
[191] Ibid., pp. 335-358.
[192] Ibid., pp. 359-370.
[193] Ibid., pp. 371-391.