Banking Practice and Foreign Exchange. E. L. Stewart Patterson, Franklin Escher
H. G. Moulton
1915
Journal of Political Economy
Hamilton Institute, I9I4. 8vo, pp. xx+637. $2. 50. This book is Vol. VIII in the " Modern Business Series " edited under the supervision of Joseph French Johnson. It is the Canadian edition of Vol. VI, Banking Practice and Foreign Exchange written by Jefferson and Escher. The volume as a whole is about a third larger than the American edition. Mr. Patterson is the author of Part I, "Banking Principles," and Part II, "Banking Practice," both with reference to Canadian experience, and he has also
more »
... collaborated with Mr. Escher in Part III on "Foreign Exchange." A word may be said first with reference to changes that have been made in this edition of Escher's treatise. Four chapters have been added to " Foreign Exchange" and the first chapter has been rewritten and greatly extended. In all, it now covers I48 pages as against 70 pages in the American edition. Incidentally it may be stated that the present study is much more comprehensive and less elementary than Mr. Escher's little independent volume on Elements of Foreign Exchange. Chap. i in the new volume, on " Mechanism of the Exchange Market," contains a good statement of inland exchange operations and an account of exchange between New York and Canada. The mint par and gold points are more fully explained than in the previous volume; and there are comprehensive tables of rates and technical terms in eight or ten languages. In connection with finance bills Mr. Escher makes a statement of interest, one not made in his Elements of Foreign Exchange. He says (p. 442): " Concerning the exact meaning of 'finance-bill' it is surprising what a difference of opinion exists even among well-informed writers on exchange, but concerning the present meaning of the term as it is used in the exchange market in New York there is no chance for any difference of opinion. Among practical exchange men a finance-bill means just one thing-an unsecured long bill of exchange drawn by a banker in one country on a banker in another and sold for the purpose of raising money."
doi:10.1086/252667
fatcat:diaasd722vgmnh4siqfn5xv6a4