had broken the bands of the strait waistcoat in which business had been officially swaddled and had given it room to grow subject solely to regulation by banking prudence. Government had its revenge when the war came by making the bankers use the machine to suit its own purposes, expanding the elasticity with which they had endowed it into a Gargantuan balloon blown out to meet the exigencies of bad war finance.
The pre-war system can be most simply studied by looking at the balance sheet of one of our English banks, a summarized specimen of which is given below. Among the liabilities the large item of current and deposit accounts represents the extent to which the customers of the bank are able to call upon it to meet cheques drawn upon it. In the case of current accounts the money so held by the customer to his credit can be withdrawn at any moment. In the case of deposit accounts a certain amount of notice, usually a week, is required. But even in this case if the customer wanted money in a hurry he would certainly be able to arrange with his bank, though it might cost him something to do so, to be able to draw against his deposit account forthwith.
