For what may be called private finance, the student should turn first to the article Banks and Banking (Vol. 3, p. 334; equivalent to nearly 60 pages in this Guide), by Sir R. H. I. Palgrave, director of Barclay & Co., Ltd., Bankers; Charles A. Conant, author of The Principles of Money and Banking; and Sir J. R. Paget, author of the Law of Banking. Further information on the early history of banking in the United States will be found in the historical section of the article United States (Vol. 27, especially p. 697), and in the article Andrew Jackson (Vol. 15, p. 107) by Prof. W. G. Sumner of Yale.
Currency
Next in his course of reading, he should study the article Money (Vol. 18, p. 694; equivalent to 45 pages in this Guide), by C. F. Bastable. This deals with: the functions and varieties of money, including coined money and all else that can take its place in facilitating exchange, in estimating comparative values, as a standard of value or of deferred payments, as a store of value; the determining causes of the value of money and of the quantity of money required by a country, the credit theory, early forms of currency—greenstones, ochre, shells, furs, oxen, grain; metals as money; coinage and state control; representative money, and credit as money; economic aspects of the production and consumption of precious metals; review of the history of some important currencies—Greek, Roman, medieval, English and French coinages are treated in the article Numismatics (Vol. 19, pp. 869–911, equivalent to 135 pages of this Guide, with 6 plates and 11 other text illustrations); which discusses such questions as the constitution of money; typical currency systems; statistics of production of gold and silver since the discovery of America, and coinage systems. Other relevant articles are Bimetallism, and Monetary Conferences for the relation of the metals; and the articles Gold, Silver, Seigniorage, Demonetization, Gresham’s Law, Token Money and Greenbacks. In the article on the George Junior Republic (Vol. 11, p. 749), the “children’s state” at Freeville, N. Y., the student will find an interesting proof of the relation of “token” to “real” money. “The government issued its own currency in tin and later in aluminium and ‘American’ money could not be passed within the 48 acres of the Republic until 1906, when depreciation forced the Republic’s coinage out of use and ‘American’ coin was made legal tender.”
Banking
For information as to the methods of financial business the reader should study the articles Savings Banks (Vol. 24, p. 243) by Sir G. C. T. Bartley, founder of the National Penny Bank, and Bradford Rhodes, founder of the 34th St. National Bank, N. Y. Friendly Societies (Vol. 11, p. 217); Trust Company (Vol. 27, p. 329), by Charles A. Conant, author of The Principles of Money and Banking; Clearing House (Vol. 6, p. 476); Letter of Credit (Vol. 16, p. 501); Stock Exchange (Vol. 25, p. 930); Bill of Exchange (Vol. 3, p. 940); Exchange (Vol. 10, p. 50); Futures (Vol. 11, p. 375); Time Bargains (Vol. 26, p. 988); Market (Vol. 17, p. 731), by Wynnard Hooper, financial editor of The Times, London, with sections on Movements of Prices, Cycles, Tendency to Equilibrium, Disturbance of Equilibrium, Future Delivery, Corners, Money Market, The Great Banks, Foreign Loans, and Discount Houses; Consols (Vol. 6, p. 979); Coupon (Vol. 7, p. 318); Dividend (Vol. 8, p. 331); and Premium (Vol. 22, p. 279).
Information on distinctive banking and business laws in the separate states will be found in the section on finance of the article on each state. For instance in the article Oklahoma (Vol. 20, p. 60) there is a summary of the bank deposit guaranty fund.
For insurance see the chapter in this Guide For Insurance Men.
Lives of Financiers
In financial biography, as in history, theory and practice, the Britannica is valuable because of its full, clear and authoritative treatment. The student will find articles on great financiers, such as the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Barings, the Rothschilds, James Law, George Peabody, James Fisk, Jay Gould, E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, J. P. Morgan; and on great authors on the subjects of economics and finance,—for instance, Malthus, Adam Smith, Walter Bagehot, Ricardo, Roscher, Boehm von Bawerk, Thorold Rogers, H. C. Carey, E. R. A. Seligman, F. A. Walker, J. W. Jenks, F. W. Taussig, Richmond Mayo-Smith and A. T. Hadley.