ABSTRACT
PRELIMINARY BANKING forms the centre of the credit system in all de-veloped countries. In England it occupies a position of the greatest social importance, not only as the first among the agencies supplying capital to business men, but also as
the principal source of the supply of currency and consequently the centre from which that supply is controlled. The scope of the work undertaken by the banking system shows considerable differences as between one country and another, differences which are natural enough in view of the fact that the form which the system assumes is dependent in a peculiar degree upon the character of the social organization within which it operates.
