FINANCE, INDUSTRY, TRANSPORTATION. 



449 



subjected to a reduction in number of grains 

 and increase in fineness in 1873. The ten- 

 cent pieces contained 41.6 grains, of standard 

 fineness, and now bear 38.58 grains under the 

 new standard of fineness. From 1851 to 1853, 

 the five-cent pieces were composed of 12.375 

 grains, 750 fine, and from 1853 to 1873, when 

 their coinage was abolished, 11.52 grains, 900 

 fine. The old copper cents, authorized in 

 1792, contained 264 grains ; the next year the 

 amount was reduced to 208, and three years 

 later to 168. As a purely copper token this 

 coin was abolished shortly after the last reduc- 

 tion in the number of grains. The two-cent 

 piece of April, 1864, contained 96 grains of 

 copper, zinc, and tin, and was discontinued in 

 1873. The half-cent pieces were established 

 in 1792, containing 132 grains ; this amount 

 was reduced in 1793 to 104, and in 1796 to 84. 

 None are coined now. An act of March, 1875, 

 authorized the coinage of a silver twenty-cent 

 piece, containing 77. 16 grains, 900 fine. This 

 coin being but a trifle smaller than the twenty- 

 five cent piece, led to such a general confusion 

 of the two, that in 1878 its coinage was 

 stopped. But few are now found in circula- 

 tion. The one-cent piece of present use was 

 authorized in 1857, and consisted of 72 grains 

 of copper and nickel, and in 1864 this compo- 

 sition was changed to 48 grains of copper, 

 zinc, and tin. Finally, the five and three cent 

 nickel pieces were authorized in 1866 and 1865 

 respectively; the latter has a comparatively 

 small circulation. 



The amount of standard silver dollars coined 

 from February 28, 1878, to October 31, 1882, 

 was $128,329,880, of which $93,006,382 re- 

 mained in the Treasury, and $35,323,498 was 

 placed in circulation. Of the $30,007,175 

 coined in the thirteen months preceding Octo- 

 ber 31, 1882, $2,950,072 went into circulation, 

 and $27,057,103 remained in the Treasury. 



The total value of the minor coin in the 

 Treasury on September 1, 1882, was $504,- 

 515.29. The supply of five-cent nickel coins 

 in the Treasury, which three years previous 

 reached the sum of $1,184,252.95, had been 

 exhausted, and their coinage was resumed by 

 the mint. None of these coins are supplied 

 by the Treasury, but the one-cent and five-cent 

 pieces are furnished in multiples of $20 by the 

 mint, which bears the expense of their trans- 

 portation . 



BANKS, 



The term bank, in reference to commerce, 

 signifies a place of deposit of .money, and is 

 derived from the Italian banco, a seat or bench, 

 because the early custodians and dealers in 

 money in Italy were accustomed to sit on 



benches in the market places of the principal 

 towns. During the middle ages, in which 

 commerce was but little developed, there could 

 be no field open for banking as a business ; 

 but on the revival of business in the twelfth 

 century, and when the cities of Italy engrossed 

 nearly all the trade of Europe, the necessity 

 arose again for the employment of bankers. 

 The successful manufacturing efforts of the 

 Florentines brought them into commercial 

 dealings with different countries in Europe, 

 and thence arose the establishment of banks as 

 private concerns. The earliest public bank 

 established in modern Europe was that of 

 Venice, which was founded in 1157. About 

 the year 1350, the cloth merchants of Barce- 

 lona, then a wealthy body, added the business 

 of banking to their other commercial pursuits ; 

 being authorized so to do by an ordinance of 

 the King of Aragon, which contained the im- 

 portant stipulation that they should be re- 

 stricted from acting as bankers until they 

 should have given sufficient security for the 

 liquidation of their engagements. In 1401 a 

 bank was opened by the functionaries of the 

 city, which was both a bank of deposit and of 

 circulation, the first of the kind ever estab- 

 lished in Europe. 



The Bank of Genoa was planned and par- 

 tially organized in 1345, but was not brought 

 into operation until 1407, when the numerous 

 loans which the Republic had contracted with 

 its citizens were consolidated, and formed the 

 nominal capital stock of the bank. As secu- 

 rity for its capital in the hands of the Republic, 

 this bank, which was given the name of the 

 Chamber of St. George, received in pledge the 

 Island of Corsica, and several other depend- 

 encies of Genoa. Since 1800, when the French, 

 besieged in Genoa, appropriated its treasure to 

 the payment of their troops, the bank has had 

 little other than a nominal existence. 



The banks of note next established, of which 

 records remain, were opened in Holland and 

 in Hamburg. The most celebrated of these 

 was the Bank of Amsterdam, established in 

 1609, simply as a bank of deposit, under the 

 guaranty of the city. The credit given in 

 the bank for .foreign coin and the worn coin of 

 the country was called bank money, to distin- 

 guish it from current money of the place ; 

 and as the regulations directed that all bills 

 drawn upon or negotiated at Amsterdam, of 

 the value of 600 guilders and upwards, must 

 be paid in bank-money, every merchant was 

 obliged to keep an account with the bank, in 

 order to make his ordinary payments. The 

 Bank of Hamburg was established in 1619, on 

 the model of that of Amsterdam originally. 

 Deposits are received only in bullion, and a 



