Valuable metal has generally been replaced by paper notes. These
notes are issued by governments and authorized banks, and are known as
“legal tender”. Other arrangements such as cheques and money orders are
not legal tender. They perform the function
of money substitute and are
known as “instruments of credit”. Credit is offered only when creditors
believe that they have a good chance of obtaining legal tender when they
present such instruments at a bank or other authorized institution. If a
man’s asserts are known to be considerable, then his credit will be good. If
his asserts are in doubt, then it may be difficult for him to obtain larger
sums of credit or even to pay for goods with a cheque.
The value of money is basically its
value as a medium of exchange,
or, as economists put it, its “purchasing power”. This purchasing power is
dependant on supply and demand. The demand for money is reckonable as
the quantity needed to effect business transactions. An increase in business
requires an increase in the amount of money coming into general
circulation. But the demand for money is related not only to the quantity of
business but also to the rapidity which the business is done. The supply of
money, on the other hand, is the actual amount in notes and coins available
for business purposes. If too much money is available, its value decreases,
and it does not buy as much as it did, say, five years earlier. This condition
is known as “inflation”.
Banks are closely concerned with the flow
of money into and out of
the economy. They often co-operate with governments in efforts to
stabilize economies and to prevent inflation. They are specialists in the
business of providing capital, and in allocating funds on credit. Banks
originated as places to which people took their valuables for safe-keeping,
but today the great banks of the world have many functions in addition to
acting as guardians of valuable private possessions.
Banks normally receive money from their customers in two distinct
forms,
on current account, and on deposit account. With a current account,
a customer can issue personal cheques. No interest is paid by the bank on
this type of account. With a deposit account however, the customer
undertakes to leave his money in the bank for a minimum specified period
ot time. Interest is paid on this money.
The bank in turn lends the deposited money to customers who need
capital. This activity earns interest for the bank, and this interest is almost
always at a higher rate than any interest
which the bank pays to its
depositors. In this way the bank makes its main profits.
We can say that die primary function of a bank today is
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