374 
DUTTON. 
Aladdin’s lamp in these days, and coin is but a clumsy relic 
of antiquity. 
The assertion that the filling and signing of a bank check 
for a specified amount by a depositor creates just so much 
money may seem an absurd one to many. Undoubtedly it 
must have its qualifications; but there is no qualification 
which affects its substantial validity. As Prof. F. A. Walker 
says, “Money is that money does.” A valid check pays 
debts and buys goods as effectually and completely as a Treas¬ 
ury note. Its uses, however, are much more restricted. But, 
on the other hand, wherever usable it is generally more con¬ 
venient, either to the drawer or payee, or both. Its function 
is a pure money function. Between the time the check is 
drawn and the time it is honored and cancelled at the de¬ 
pository on which it is drawn it is an addition to the circu¬ 
lation. It may have effected one payment only, or it may 
have effected many payments. 
It is also evident that an increased rapidity of circulation 
is an increase of the monetary potency of the total currency. 
In truth, one of the most striking differences between the 
active times and the dull times of business is the difference 
in the rapidity of circulation of both statutory money and 
credit money. While most people would say that more 
money is paid out and in, during active times, the real truth 
is that the money of the country changes hands more rapidly, 
with little or no variation in the amount. 
Perhaps the best illustration of the effect of credit money, 
such as bank checks, upon the volume of currency may be 
seen in contrasting the money system of France with our own. 
In France such devices are less commonly used. With a 
population much smaller than our own, as well as much 
poorer, and with an aggregate value of total exchanges not 
much more than one-third as great, the total estimated 
amount of money in the country is about three times as 
great per capita as in the United States. A very considerable 
part of this mass, however, is not in circulation. 
A great deal of fallacious reasoning results from a want 
