THE Chinese do not recognize either
gold or silver as current coin. Gold is
considered merchandise, and its value
varies like that of any other precious
commodity in Europe. As to silver,
it is never coined, but, to forward the
purposes of commerce, it is generally
divided into small ingots, which they
can cut into morsels, as they choose,
in order to make their payments exact.
Thus all men of business carry with
them a pair of small scales, of most
exact balance, by means of which they
settle all their accounts by weight.
The changer may usually be seen ex-
amining a dollar, and grasping with one
hand a species of shears, used as well
for testing as dividing the coin of
foreigners. A dollar is worth a num-
ber more or less, according to the
course of exchange of the small cop-
per coins which are seen threaded on
the changer's desk. This coin is the
only one legally current in China ; it
is round, with a hole in the middle,
and is a little larger, but much thinner
than an English farthing. These small
coins are called lees; they are used
separately for trade purposes, or strung
in fifties, hundreds, or thousands. The
lees are current only during the reign
of the sovereign who issued them. The
head of the reigning prince, however,
is never engraved on the Chinese coin ;
the only distinguishing mark is that
of the dynasty under which it was
struck, with a couple of Chinese char-
acters on the face, and as many Tartar
characters on the reverse. The Chinese
would think it a great mark of disre-
spect to the majesty of the emperor,
as brother of the sun, to circulate his
august effigy among the common peo-
ple, and submit it to the plebeian fingers
of hawkers, pedlers, and fishfags. Such
a degradation is not to be thought of.
Bankers of the Old School.
THE London banker of the olden time,
the successor to the Lombards, had but
little resemblance to the modern gentle-
man who is known by the same title.
BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS.
77
He was a man of serious manners, plain
apparel, the steadiest conduct, and a
rigid observer of formalities. On look-
ing in his face, there could be read, in
intelligible characters, the fact that the
ruling maxim of life, the one to which
he turned all his thoughts and by which
he shaped all his actions, was, " that
he who would be trusted with the
money of other men should look as if
he deserved the trust, and be an osten-
sible pattern to society of probity, ex-
actness, frugality, and decorum."
He lived, if not the whole of the
year, at least the greater part of it, at
his banking house, was punctual to the
hours of business, and always to be
found at his desk. The fashionable
society at the west end of the town,
and the amusements of high life, he
never dreamed of enjoying, and would
have deemed it little short of insanity
to imagine that such an act was within
the compass of human daring, as that
of a banker lounging for an evening in
Fop's Alley, at the opera, or turning
out for the Derby with four greys to
his chariot, and a goodly bumper swung
behind, well stuffed with pies, spring
chickens, and iced champagne.
The material or architectural aspect
of the business of banking in early
times, is also, to modern ideas, as hum-
ble as it must have been picturesque.
Instead of the handsome apartments,
the highly polished and well-fitted
counters, and well-dressed clerks of
the modern banking-houses, there were
the dark-featured Lombards, ranged
behind their bags of money displayed
on low benches in open shops, pro-
tected, perhaps, by occasional awnings,
from the inclemency of the weather.
"The Lady's Broker."
MOST of the leading men who act
as brokers in London go by nick-names ;
and the way in which these names some-
times originate, is quite curious. One
of the fraternity has been dubbed " The
Lady's Broker," in consequence of hav-
ing been employed, on one occasion, by
Madame R, the lady of a deceased
capitalist, in a speculation into which
she entered on her own account, and
without the knowledge of her husband.
The speculation turned out so unfavor-
ably, that neither the lady nor her bro-
ker could discharge their obligations ;
and hence, as in other cases where the
broker cannot meet the engagements he
has entered into for any other party, he
must, to save himself from the black-
board, give up the name of his prin-
cipal, the broker was compelled to
divulge the name of the lady speculator.
From that day to this, he has gone
under the name of the " The Lady's
Broker." The husband, in this case,
knowing he could not be compelled to
pay for the illegal gambling of his wife,
refused to advance a single farthing
in liquidation of her debts.
Cashier Inviting- a Run upon his Bank.
A BANK that was managed with great
caution was once in what was supposed
to be a peculiar position, when a friend
of the cashier called upon him, and tak-
ing him aside, with a grave face, said,
" I heard it asserted just now that you
have not five thousand dollars left out
of the one hundred thousand silver
dollars that were lately paid into your
bank, and I hastened to tell you, in
order that you may show me your
vaults, and give me the means to con-
tradict the rumor."
" No," said the cashier, " the rumor
is all true. What use do you suppose
that I have for the silver ? "
"Why, to meet the run upon your
bank, which must certainly come when
this state of your affairs is generally
known," was the reply.
" Let the run come? said the cashier ;
" and by way of beginning it, do you
go into the street, collect all of our
bills that you can find, and bring them
to me, and I promise to give you the
hard dollars for them."
COMMERCIAL AOT) BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
After some time, his friend returned
to say that he had not been able to find
any of the bills of that particular bank,
excepting a solitary one for five dollars,
for which the silver was immediately
offered him.
" Just so," said the cashier, " almost
all the bills that I have issued have
already been sent in, and I have paid
out the silver for them. But in doing
so, I have emptied most of these boxes
of dollars. The money was given me to
lend ; and I have lent it for about four
months. But I could not lend and keep
it too. I have, therefore, very little
gold or silver in the vaults. So long
as I have the small amount that is
necessary to redeem the few bills that
remain out, and the two thousand dol-
lars which I have earned for the stock-
holders, I am easy. You may go back
to the street, if you will, and defy the
world to break our bank. We shall
lend nothing more until the promissory
notes that we have taken as security
begin to fall due. As they are paid in,
with hard dollars, or the bills of other
banks, we shall have the means to lend
money again."
Obtaining- Security to be a Broker.
AMONG the -political opponents of
George Hudson, the English railway
monarch, when at York, was one who,
when riches were discovered by him to
be so easily realized on the stock ex-
change, sought the great metropolis to
make his fortune, as others had, by be-
coming a broker. To London he went.
But to be a member of the money mar-
ket in that city, two sureties were re-
quired ; and he could procure only one.
The difficulty continued, and great was
his disappointment. In his despair he
thought of the railway king ; and, as a
last resource, on Mr. Hudson he waited,
and told his mission.
" You've been no friend of mine,"
said Mr. Hudson, bluntly ; " but I be-
lieve you're a good sort of fellow call
on me to-morrow."
The morrow came, and, full of anxi-
ety, he waited on the autocrat.
" Well," said Mr. Hudson, " it's all
settled ; I've arranged everything. Mr.
will be your other security: go
to him ; I've told him to do it."
Mr. Hudson did not add, as he might,
that he had in fact guaranteed the
amount to the broker named by him,
and was himself sole surety for the
opponent he befriended.
London Bankers and Banking: Houses,
THE oldest banking houses in Lon-
don are Child's, at Temple Bar, Hoare's,
in Fleet street, Strahan's formerly
Snow's, in the Strand, and Gosling's,
in Fleet street. None date earlier than
the restoration of Charles the Second.
The original bankers were goldsmiths
" goldsmiths that keep running cashes "
and their shops were distinguished
by signs. Thus, Child's was known by
" The Marygold," still to be seen where
the checks are cashed ; Hoare's, by " the
Golden Bottle," still remaining over the
door ; Strahan's, by " the Golden An-
chor," to be seen inside; and Gosling's,
by " the Three Squirrels," still promi-
nent in the ironwork of their windows
toward the street.
The founder of Child's celebrated
house was John Backwell, an alderman
of the city of London, ruined by the
shutting up of the Exchequer in the
reign of Charles the Second. Stone
and Martin's, in Lombard street, is said
to have been founded by Sir Thomas
Gresham, and the grasshopper sign of
the Gresham family was preserved in
the banking house till late in the last
century.
Of the west-end banking houses,
Drummond's, at Charing-cross, is the
oldest; and next to Drummond's,
Coutts's, in the Strand. The founder
of Drummond's obtained his great
position by advancing money to the
Pretender, and the king's consequent
withdrawal led to a rush of the Scot-
BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS.
79
tish nobility and gentry with their
accounts, and to the ultimate advance-
ment of the bank to its present footing.
Coutts's house was founded by George
Middleton, and originally stood in St.
Martin's lane, near St Martin's church ;
Coutts removed it to its present site.
The great Lord Clarendon, in the
reign of Charles the Second, kept an
account at Hoare's ; Dryden lodged
liis 50 for the discovery of the bullies
who waylaid and beat him, at Child's,
Temple Bar; Pope banked at Drum-
mond's ; Lady Mary Wortley Montague,
at Child's ; Gay, at Hoare's ; Dr. John-
son and Sir Walter Scott, at Coutts's ;
Bishop Percy, at Gosling's ; the Duke
of Wellington, at Coutts's ; the Duke
of Sutherland, at Drummond's; the
Duke of Devonshire, at Snow's.
Paying- Notes in Specie.
PHILIP HONE, speaking of the " bless-
ed " days of specie currency, says : " The
few notes which were given out by the
merchants and shopkeepers arid the
sequel will show how few they must
have been were collected of course
through the bank. Michael Boyle, the
runner, with his jocund laugh and
pleasant countenance, called, several
days before the time, with a notice that
the note would be due on such a day,
and payment expected three days there-
after. When the day arrived, the same
person called again with a canvas bag,
counted the money in dollars, half dol-
lars, quarters, and sixpences (those
abominable disturbers of the people's
peace bank notes being scarcely
known in those days), carried it to the
bank, and then sallied out to another
debtor. And in this way all the notes
were collected in the great commercial
city of New York, in such a circum-
scribed circle did its operations then
revolve. Well do I remember Mi-
chael Boyle, running around from Pearl
street to Maiden lane, . Broadway, and
William street, the business limits,
happily for him, not extending north
of the present Fulton street, panting
under the load of a bag of silver, a sort
of locomotive sub-treasurer, or the em-
bodiment of a specie circular."
Security for a Discount.
IT is very common among business
men to give vent to a good deal of
grumbling about the illiberal course
which characterizes banks in hard
times, toward their customers. An
unfortunate customer of one of these
institutions in Philadelphia, being
somewhat irritated at the picayune poli-
cy pursued, resorted to the following
desperate expedient, to see if there was
any such thing as " raising the wind,"
in said concern. He drew a note for
five dollars at thirty days, covered it
down the back with first-class indorse-
ments from his fellow sufferers, pinned
it to a ten dollar bill of the same bank,
as collateral, and then ventured to offer
it for discount. That is what Jedediah
Tompkins would call " Tiintin 1 round."
Jacob Barker's Forty Kegs of Specie.
MANY years ago^ Jacob Barker offered
some good business paper for discount
at one of the Wall street banks, and,
when the board of directors met, they,
after mature deliberation, threw the
paper out, which displeased friend Ja-
cob, and he consequently sought re-
venge, in a professional way, for what
he took to be rather ungentlemanly
treatment. A few days only elapsed,
when Jacob presented forty thousand
dollars of the bills of that same bank
at its counter, and demanded the specie
from the astonished officers ; but never-
theless it was rolled out to him in kegs
of one thousand dollars each, the
teller of the bank informing him that
they were obliged to give him small
coin, five and ten cent pieces.
Here was a dilemma, even for so
bright witted and redoubtable a man
80
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
as Jacob ; but being equal to the emer-
gency, Jacob ordered the porter to un-
head the casks, which being done, Ja-
cob took a handful of the coin from
each, and requested the teller to place
the remainder which of course re-
quired, according to bank custom, to be
counted to his credit. It was said,
at the time, that it required the whole
available force of the institution to
count the coin, and that many late
hours were made. Whether Jacob ever
offered any more notes for discount, or
applied for any " accommodation " fa-
vors, at that bank or whether he got
them if he did, we are only left to in-
fer.
Final Argument at a Bank Counter.
ON receipt of the news of the banks
suspending specie payments, Mrs. Jones
hastened to her savings bank, elbowed
her way smartly to the desk, presented
her book, and demanded her money.
" Madam," said the clerk persuasive-
ly, " are you sure you want to draw this
money out in specie ? "
"Mrs. Jones," said a director, with
an oracular frown, do you know that
you are injuring your fellow deposi-
tors?"
" And setting an example of great
folly to less educated persons in this
community ? " struck in another direc-
tor.
" Let us advise you simply to reflect,"
interposed the clerk, blandly.
" To wait for a day or two at least,"
said the director
At last there was a pause.
Mrs. Jones had been collecting her-
self. She burst now. In a tone which
was heard throughout the building,
and above all the din, and at which
her interlocutors turned ashy pale, she
said:
" Witt you pay me my money yes or
nof"
They paid her instantly.
First Jewish Bill of Exchange.
THE circumstance which gave rise to
the introduction of bills of exchange in
the mercantile world, was the banish-
ment from France, in the reigns of
Philip Augustus and Philip the Long,
of the Jews, who, it is well known,
took refuge in Lombardy. On their
leaving the kingdom, they had com-
mitted to the care of some persons in
whom they could place confidence, such
of their property as they could not
carry with them. Having fixed their
abode in a new country, they furnished
various foreign merchants and travel-
lers, whom they had commissioned to
bring away their fortunes, with secret
letters, which were accepted in France
by those who had the care of their
effects. From this it is claimed that
the merit of the invention of exchanges
belongs to the Jews exclusively. They
discovered the means of substituting
impalpable riches for palpable ones, the
former being transmissible to all parts,
without leaving behind them any traces
indicative of the way they have taken.
Leather Money.
ON the authority of Seneca, a curious
account is given of a period when leath-
er, appropriately stamped to give it a
certain legal character, was the only
current money. At a comparatively re-
cent date, in the annals of Europe,
Fredich the Second, who died in 1250,
at the siege of Milan, actually paid his
troops with leather money. Nearly the
same circumstance occurred in England,
during the great wars of the barons.
In the course of 1350, King John, for
the ransom of his royal person, prom-
ised to pay Edward the Third, of Eng-
land, three millions of gold crowns.
In order to fulfil this obligation, he
was reduced to the mortifying neces-
sity of paying the expenses of the pal-
ace in leather money, in the centre of
each piece there being a little, bright
BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS.
81
point of silver. In that reign is found
the origin of the burlesque honor of
boyhood, called " conferring a leather
medal." The imposing ceremonies ac-
companying a presentation, gave full
force, dignity, and value to a leather
jewel, which noblemen were probably
proud to receive at the hand of ma-
jesty. ^^
The United Job and Lazarus Bank.
WITH a view to the special advan-
tage of the small and uncertain capi-
talist, the United Job and Lazarus Bank
has at last been established.
That distinguished British actuary,
Mr. Fitzlocker, has calculated that the
half-pence annually bestowed in charity
upon persons of the mendicant class
amounts, on an average, to no less a
sum than 950,000, 14s. 2d. This
sum does not include the daily coppers
expended upon the crossing-sweepers,
that may fairly be put down at 50,000
more, sinking, for the sake of round
numbers, the odd half-penny. Thus, a
total is presented of 1,000,000, 14s.
2\d. Now, it is well known that the
mendicant and crossing-sweeper class
are, for the most part, a thrifty if not a
penurious people. "What is more com-
mon than to read of the apprehension
or death of the beggar upon whose per-
son or body are found rolls of bank
notes and showers of sovereigns ?
It is calculated that of the above 1,-
000,000, not above one half is expended
by the recipients for board, clothing,
and lodging leaving a fair margin of
expense for an annual visit to a watering
place. Thus, a clear half million is an-
nually accumulating in old stockings,
under worm-eaten floors, and in all sorts
of impossible nooks and corners consid-
ered convenient only to Plutus.
Now, it is to afford safe and pecu-
liarly profitable means of investment to
the provident classes above named, that
the United Job (it is requested that
" Job " be taken in its purely patriarch-
al pronunciation) the United Job and
6
Lazarus Bank is established. The per-
sons most interested in the successful
permanence of the institution, it cannot
be doubted, will feel the fullest and-
deepest confidence in the character of
the concern, upon a careful perusal of
the circular containing the names of
the officers ; these include such individ-
uals as Messrs. Crook-fingered Jack,
Jemmy Twitcher, Wat Dreary, Ben
Budge, Ben Booty, Reynard Foxleer,
and others, with Mr. Filch as manager
and cashier
Capital of European Bankers.
AN actual report of the general super-
visor of the books of the several firms
of the Rothschild, giving the aggregate
amount of their capital or the sum at
their instantaneous command, shows
that capital to be a millard of francs,
or two hundred million dollars. It is
also stated that the similar capital of
the two Pereires is at least one hundred
millions of francs ; of the Hottinguers,
seventy-five millions ; of Mir6s and the
Foulds still higher ; and the Duke of
Galiera, at the head of the Credit Mobi-
lier, is held to be prodigiously opulent.
The Pereires have created for them-
selves a new fortune by the purchase
of very extensive grounds within and
without the walls of the capital, which
they turn into streets and boulevards
with a certainty of the earliest and
most ample proceeds.
Dudley North's Opposition to Bro-
kerage.
THE system of banking or brokerage
by bills which was introduced in Lon-
don in the sixteenth century, in place
of the old method of paying in solid
metals, encountered much opposition
and clamor. Old fashioned merchants
complained bitterly that a class of men
who, thirty years before, had confined
themselves to their functions, and had
made a fair profit by embossing silver
bowls and chargers, by setting jewels
for fine ladies, and by selling pistoles
82
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
and dollars to gentlemen setting out for
the Continent, had become the treas-
urers and were fast becoming the mas-
ters of the whole city. These usurers,
it was said, played at hazard with what
had been earned by the industry and
hoarded by the thrift of other men. \If
the dice turned up well, the knave who
kept the cash became an alderman ; if
they turned up ill, the dupe who fur-
nished the cash became a bankrupt. On
the other side, the consequences of the
modern practice were set forth in ani-
mated language. The new system, it
was said, saved both labor and money.
Two clerks, seated in one counting
house, did what, under the old system,
must have been done by twenty clerks
in twenty different establishments.
Gradually, however, even those who
had been loudest in murmuring against
the innovation, gave way and conform-
ed to the prevailing usage. The last
person who held out, strange to say,
was Sir Dudley North. When, in
1689, after residing many years abroad,
he returned to London, nothing aston-
ished or displeased him more than the
practice of making payments by draw-
ing bills on bankers. He found that
he could not go on 'change without
being stealthily followed round the
piazza by goldsmiths as the dealers in
bullion were then called who, with
low bows, begged to have the honor
of serving him. He lost his temper
when some of these friends asked him
where he kept his cash: "Where
should I keep it," he sharply asked,
" but in my own house ? " and turned
his heel upon the whole pack. With
difficulty he was at last induced to put
his money, just by way of trial, into
the hands of one of the Lombard street
men, as they were familiarly called.
As ill luck would have it, the Lombard
street man broke, and some of his cus-
tomers suffered severely. Dudley North
lost only fifty pounds ; but this loss im-
movably confirmed him in his dislike
of the whole art of " improved bank-
ing." It was in vain, however, that
this old landmark stood up and exhort-
ed his fellow citizens to return to the
good old practice, and not to expose
themselves to utter ruin in order to
spare themselves a little trouble. He
stood alone against the whole com-
munity.
Strongest Bank in the "World.
THE Bank of Genoa, which has been
in existence hundreds of years, has
perhaps proved itself the strongest in-
stitution of the kind in the world. It
is a remarkable fact in its history, that
its administration has always been as
permanent and unchangeable, as that
of the republic has been agitated and
fluctuating. No alteration ever took
place in the mode of governing and
regulating the affairs of the bank ; and
two sovereign and independent powers,
at war with each other, have been
within the walls of the city, without
producing the slightest shock to the
bank, or causing it to secrete any of its
books or treasures.
Financial Physic.
IT is proposed to establish an alto-
gether new method of inquiring into
the state of the health of certain classes
of the community. The following are
some of the interrogatories to be ad-
dressed to the patient : How are your
funds ? Let me see your coupons. Put
out your stock. Are your dividends all
right ? Have you any pain about your
bonds? Any uneasiness referring to
your foreign securities ? What is the
state of your corn market ? Allow me
to examine your shares. Let me feel
your scrip. Have you any sinking in
your mines ? Any tightness at the
back, or hollowness of the chest ? How
is your discount ? Have you any appe-
tite for speculation ?
BUSINESS PUKSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS.
83
Brief Explanation of Banking.
OLD Mr. Lefevre, father of the former
speaker of the House of Commons, and
the principal founder of the house of
Curries & Co., illustrated the simple the-
ory of banking to a customer qne day, in
a manner rivalling the best treatises on
that subject. The customer in question
was one of those men who find it very
convenient to have bad memories, and
very tantalizing at times to have good
ones. His account was almost always
overdrawn, and whenever spoken to
on the hitch thus occasioned, his -an-
swer was invariably the same he really
had forgotten how it stood. At last,