Chapter I. Origin And Use Of Money

1. What is the true function of money and how early in history was it understood?

2. What were the earliest mediums of exchange?

3. What is the reason for the use of metal as money?

4. What is the nature of the first stamped metals?

5. Who first coined money under the Romans?

6. What was the origin of the English pound sterling?

7. Has the proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny always been uniform? How about the proportionate value of these coins?

8. What causes have contributed to the diminish-ment of the real quantity of valuable metal contained in coins?

9. What two different meanings are attached in economics to the word "value"?

10. Show how many things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange, and vice versa.

Chapter II. The Function Of Banks

1. What are the functions of a banker, broadly speaking?

2. Into what classes are banks divided?

3. What are the principal features of the business of banking?

4. What funds constitute the disposable means of a bank?

5. How are these disposable means employed?

6. How may the expenses of a bank be classified?

7. How are the profits of a bank reckoned?

8. Give a definition of a bank in commercial language.

9. How is a public bank generally regulated?

10. What is the nature of a private bank?

11. What is the security of those who transact business with a private bank?

12. What feature constitutes the great utility of banking establishments in commercial countries?

Chapter III. The Origin Of Banking

1. What is the earliest evidence that ancient money changers allowed interest on funds lodged in their hands?

2. What form of banks existed in ancient Greece? 3 What methods were employed by the Athenian bankers?

4. Where do we find the first historic suggestion for the establishment of a joint-stock bank?

5. What were the bankers and banking houses of ancient Rome called?

6. How were the Roman bankers connected with the state?

7. What is the popular origin of the word "bank"?

8. What other derivation of the word bank has re-ceived support?

9. How did the Florentine bankers of Italy achieve their reputation?

10. Where was the first national bank founded in Europe, and when?

11. What were the characteristics of the Bank of Venice ?

12. When were the first bills of exchange employed in commerce?

13. When was the Bank of Amsterdam established and to what cause is its origin ascribed?

14. What is the meaning of the term agio?

15. What was the general rate of the agio of Amsterdam?

16. How was the Bank of Amsterdam managed?

17. When was the Bank of North America established, and on what plan?

Chapter IV. Early Banking In England

1. What are the four principal branches of the business of modern banking?

2. When was gold first coined in England and when did it enter permanently into currency?

3. What was the function of the office of Royal Exchanger?

4. Why was this office re-established by Charles I?

5. When did the business of money-changing fall into the hands of the goldsmiths of London?

6. Why was the business of money-lending conducted during the Middle Ages under severe restraints?

7. When do we find the earliest mention in English history of a market rate of interest?

8. Who were the principal money-lenders in England during the evolution of banking?

9. Who were the Lombards, and what was their connection with English banking?

10. When was the taking of interest for money made legal in England, and at what rate?

11. When did the borrowing of money by bankers for loaning purposes originate?

12. What was the nature of the "goldsmiths' notes." the first kind of notes issued in England?

13. How long did the business of banking remain entirely in the hands of the so-called "new-fashioned" bankers?

14. How was the transmission of money effected during the Middle Ages?

15. When was the Bank of England established?

16. What objections were raised to its establishment?

17. How is the Bank of England governed?

18. How is the English bank rate of discount fixed?

Chapter V. The Utility Of Banking

1. What was the first consideration that gave rise to the business of banking?

2. What evils are obviated by means of banking?

3. In what way does banking increase the productive capital of a nation?

4. What advantages are secured to persons engaged in trade and commerce, by means of banking?

5. How does the institution of banking facilitate the transmission of money?

6. In what way does banking save the time and expense of a merchant or retail tradesman?

7. How do banks aid business men by acting as references for them?

8. Show how the system of paying by means of checks enables one to preserve a record of expenditures.

9. What effect has banking upon the morals of society?

10. How do banks aid business by the dissemination of useful information?

Chapter VI. The Methods Of Banking

1. What are the respective duties of the ordinary officers of a bank?

2. What qualities are particularly desirable in a bank clerk?

3. What is the actual usable cash of a bank represented by?

4. What are the regulations regarding the redemption of mutilated bills.

5. In what form are United States notes printed?

6. What is meant by "accurate" interest?

7. What is the character of the great bulk of the loans made by banking institutions?

8. What is the nature of a trust company?

9. What is the advantage to the business community of safe-deposit vaults?

10. What kind of bond is usually given by bank clerks and officers?

11. What kind of currency is often issued during periods of financial stringency?

Chapter VII. The Clearing-House System

1. What is the object of the modern clearing-house system?

2. Where do we find the final clearing-house of the world?

3. What is the daily amount of the bank clearings in New York City?

4. Sketch briefly the daily operations of a clearinghouse in a large city?

5. What kind of rules are established by clearinghouses to prevent errors?

6. Where did the clearing-house idea originate?

7. For what other purposes besides banking is the clearing-house principle used in England?

Chapter VIII. Deposits And Depositors

1. What course is followed by a business man in opening an account in a bank?

2. What is the nature of a check ?

3. What is the purpose of the depositor's bankbook?

4. Who is responsible for any loss in case of the fradulent "raising" of a check?

5. Is a check dated on Sunday good?

6. Is a note executed on Sunday good?

7. Must a check necessarily be written on a printed form?

8. Why should a check usually be drawn "to order" ?

9. Is it ever a good plan to place the address of the payee on the face of a check?

10. What is the correct method of indorsing a check?

11. How would you write a check to draw money for wages of employees?

12. How would you draw cash for your own use ?

13. If you have power of attorney to indorse for a person, how do you sign your name ?

14. Is a stamped indorsement of a check as good as a written one?

15. What should be done in case a check is returned marked "no funds"?

16. How are checks "certified"?

17. What is meant by "kiting" checks?

18. What is the best form of signature for a check, and the kind most difficult to forge?

Chapter IX. Notes And Drafts

1. What is the nature of a promissory note?

2. What is meant by the day of maturity of a note?

3. What are "days of grace" ?

4. Are the words "Value received" legally necessary on a promissory note?

5. What is meant by "accommodation paper" ?

6. Can a third party or innocent holder of a note recover its value even though it was illegally given, without a valuable consideration?

7. When does a note draw interest before maturity?

8. What is the signification of indorsing a note?

9. What is the object of writing the words "Without recourse" before or after an indorser's name?

10. When should notes be presented for payment?

11. What is meant by "protesting" a note?

12. What is the form of a protest notice?

13. What course should be followed after a payment is made to apply on a note?

14. What is the effect of the indorsement of a partial payment on the back of a note?

15. What is the nature of a joint note?

16. What is the usual form of a commercial draft?

17. How are commercial drafts usually collected?

18. What is the advantage of making collections by draft?

19. When should bills receivable and commercial drafts be placed with a bank for collection?

20. What is meant by a three-party draft?

21. What is the meaning of the slip with the words "No protest" often attached to the end of a draft?

22. What are the advantages of taking a note from a debtor?

23. What is meant by discounting a note or draft?

24. How are commercial drafts used in connection with bills of lading?

Chapter X. Credit And Exchange

1. What is the great function of credit in modern business?

2. How large a portion of the business of the world is done on a credit basis?

3. Name a modern instance of contract credit obligations being exchanged without giving any evidence of the debt.

4. What is the origin of the credit instruments which have developed into bills of exchange?

5. When were such bills first used, and in what form?

6. What is meant in commerce by the term "exchange"?

7. Give an illustration of the convenience of exchange.

8. What is meant by the par of the currency of any two countries?

9. What is the par of exchange between Great Britain and the United States?

10. What do we mean when we say that exchange is "in favor of" London or Paris?

11. What causes fluctuations in the price of gold?

12. Why are the imports and exports of bullion the real test of exchange between two countries?

13. Under what conditions is it advantageous to a New York merchant to pay a debt in London by sending the actual coin across?

14. When would it be to his advantage for a New York merchant to buy a bill in London to pay a debt in Berlin?

15. To what extent is the rate of exchange affected by the balance of trade?

16. Name some other conditions that affect the rate of foreign exchange.

17. In what respects does the principle of domestic exchange differ from that of foreign exchange?

18. Upon what should the rate of domestic exchange be based under normal conditions?

19. When is it cheaper to ship gold to England than to buy sight bills?

20. What facts tend to make the city of London the financial center of the world?

21. What is the nature of a "crossed" check?

22. Why should Canadian silver coins be readily accepted at par in the United States ?

23. What great advantages are enjoyed under the Canadian banking system?

24. What is the nature of a letter of credit?

25. How does a traveler obtain money abroad upon a letter of credit?

Chapter XI Banking In Canada

1. Show how systems of banking are governed to a considerable extent by local or national conditions.

2. Is banking in Canada in any sense a monopoly?

3. Can it be said to be "free banking" as understood in the United States?

4. What is the main difference between the methods of the United States and of Canada in the matter of obtaining the privilege of opening a bank?

5. What is meant by the "double liability" of shareholders in banks?

6. What advantages accrue to the public from the fact that the capital of every Canadian bank is large and the number of banks comparatively small?

7. When do the charters of the Canadian banks expire and what is the renewal period?

8. What is necessary in a banking system to answer the requirements of a rapidly growing country and yet be safe and profitable?

9. Does the Canadian system possess all those qualities?

10. Under what conditions was fiat paper money for general circulation first issued in Canada?

11. How long was this the money of Canada and what resulted from its use ?

12. When did the merchants of Quebec and Montreal begin to agitate for a bank of issue?

13. When was the first joint-stock bank in Canada created and under what title?

14. When was the first general bank act of the Dominion passed?

15. To what extent are Canadian banks empowered to issue circulating notes?

16. What are the distinctive features of the Canadian bank note issue?

17. How are bank notes secured in Canada?

18. What feature of the Canadian bank note system of issue acts as a safeguard against any serious inflation of the currency?

19. What is the benefit of the Canadian branch bank system to the worthy borrower, as compared with the United States national banking system?

20. What increased financial facilities for marketing of farm products were provided by the Canadian Bank Act of 1906?

21. Do Canadian banks give interest on active current accounts?

22. What reports are Canadian banks required to make to the Dominion government?

Chapter XII. Bank Credits

1. When did the introduction of credit departments in banks become general?

2. When did the American Bankers' Association adopt a uniform property statement blank for the use of borrowers ?

3. When did the National Association of Credit Men adopt uniform statement blanks?

4. What are the basic principles of credit science as it is now understood?

5. Why is it now more imperatively necessary than ever for bankers to be fully informed upon the credit of borrowers?

6. Is a proper "statement of condition" of any value to the borrower as well as to the bank, and why?

7. What are the requirements of a modern bank credit department?

8. Why is it necessary that a statement of condition should be submitted to analysis?

9. Give a summary of the principles, mechanism, and rules of credit science.

10. What is the nature of the so-called "50 per cent. credit rule"?

11. How do certified public accountants and engineers assist the credit department?

12. About what percentage of commercial loans are made by banks to manufacturers? to commission men? to retailers?

13. What distinction is made by banks between "quick" assets and "fixed" assets?

14. What is the average proportion of quick assets to total assets of manufacturers? of commission men? of retailers?

Chapter XIII. The Comptroller's Office

1. What are the general duties of the Comptroller of the Currency?

2. What provisions were made in the Act of 1863 for keeping the office of Comptroller out of politics?

3. Does the affiliation of the office with the Treasury Department prevent its independence?

4. What are the functions of the organization department in the Comptroller's office?

5. What are the functions of the redemption department?

6. What is the function of the issuing department?

7. What must be set forth in the application for the creation of a national bank?

8. Are the great powers of the Comptroller derived from legislative enactment or are they largely assumed?

9. How are the national bank examiners appointed?

10. What are the duties of the examiners?

11. To whom do the bank examiners report?

12. What objections have been urged to the method of issuing bank note currency?

13. What is the course taken by the Comptroller if a bank impairs its capital?

14. In what respect does the office of the Comptroller differ from any other in Washington?

15. What responsibility falls upon the Comptroller with respect to the liquidation of the bank's assets?

Chapter XIV. Monetary System Of The United States - Coinage Of Gold And Silver

1. What were the bases of the first monetary system of the United States, established under the Act of April 2, 1792?

2. What coinage was provided for under the Act of Congress of 1873?

3. When was the trade dollar retired by Congress and its coinage prohibited?

4. When was the coinage of $1 and $3 gold pieces discontinued?

5. To what amount are the subsidiary silver coins of the United States legal tender?

6. To what amount are nickel and copper coin legal tender?

7. Why was the ratio of 15 to 1 adopted by Congress and when was it changed?

8. Has the so-called double or bimetallic standard ever been really effective in the United States?

9. How many different kinds of money circulate in the United States?

10. Under what conditions is gold coin legal tender for all debts, public and private?

11. Are gold certificates, silver certificates, and national bank notes receivable for all public dues?

12. What is the weight and fineness of the gold unit of value?

13. In what denominations is gold now coined and what are the coins called respectively?

14. What proportion of the gold coins struck at the mints of the United States have disappeared from circulation?

15. What is the amount of fine silver and the amount of alloy in the silver dollar? What alloy is used?

16. What is the exact present coinage ratio between gold and silver?

17. During what period in United States history was there no fractional silver coin in circulation?

18. Of what did the small change of the country consist during this period?

19. How are standard silver dollars issued by the treasurer and assistant treasurers of the United States?

20. What were the provisions of the Silver Act of 1890?

21. What is the meaning of the phrase 16 to 1 as applied to coinage?

22. How many parts of pure gold, pure silver, and copper alloy are there in standard bullion?

23. What are the coining values of an ounce of pure gold and an ounce of pure silver respectively?

24. What is seigniorage?

25. Does the United States government purchase gold bullion?

26. Is it authorized to purchase silver?

27. What is the meaning of free and unlimited coinage of gold as existing in the United States?

28. When may the mints lawfully refuse to receive gold bullion?

29. Under what conditions is subsidiary silver coined?

30. What was the purpose of the trade dollar formerly in circulation?

31. What is the meaning of the free and unlimited coinage of silver?

32. May coinage be unlimited without being entirely free?

33. Are national bank notes redeemable by the assistant treasurers of the United States?

Chapter XV. Monetary System Of The United States - Paper Money

1. What was the nature of the first paper money ever issued by the government of the United States?

2. What qualities prevented the depreciation of this currency when other United States notes depreciated in value?

3. Were these notes ever made legal tender?

4. When were the well-known "greenbacks" or "legal tenders" issued, and in what quantity?

5. What change was made in the volume of United States notes outstanding after the panic in 1873?

6. What were the provisions of the Currency Act of March 14, 1900, with respect to United States notes?

7. When were gold certificates first issued and when was the practice temporarily discontinued?

8. Under what conditions can the Secretary of the Treasury suspend the issue of gold certificates?

9. When was the issue of silver certificates of the smaller denominations authorized?

10. What do the silver certificates represent?

11. Are silver certificates and silver dollars redeemable in gold?

12. What were the provisions of the so-called Sherman Act of 1890 with regard to the issue of Treasury notes ?

13. What was the effect of the suspension of specie payments about January 1, 1862?

14. How was the place of the subsidiary silver coins supplied by those whose business required them to make change ?

15. How did Congress meet the emergency?

16. What was the highest amount of fractional paper currency outstanding at any time?

17. When was the issue of circulating notes by national banking associations first authorized?

18. What were the provisions of the National Bank Act of March 14, 1900?

19. Under what conditions was the organization of National Currency Associations authorized by Congress?

20. What is the security required from banks for their circulating notes?

Chapter XVI. The Federal Reserve System

1. What is the main purpose of the Federal Reserve Bank system?

2. How many Reserve Districts are there, and where are the Reserve Banks located?

3. Who are the depositors in a Federal Reserve Bank? Who are the shareholders?

4. From what sources does the Reserve Bank derive funds for use in an emergency?

5. How are panics to be prevented under the operation of the Federal Reserve Act?

6. How is the Federal Reserve Board constituted, and what are its duties?

7. How many members constitute the Federal Advisory Council, and what are its duties?

8. How are the executive officers of a Reserve Bank appointed, and what are they called?

9. In what way does the new law operate as a practical guarantee of deposits in the member banks?

10. What is the effect of the Federal Reserve System on mercantile business and credit?

Chapter XVII. Monetary Events Since 1786

1. In what year was the double standard established in the United States, and on what basis?

2. When was the United States Mint established?

3. In what year was the double standard abolished in England and the gold standard adopted?

4. What is meant by "the average rate for silver per ounce standard"?

5. When was the ratio of 1 to 16 substituted for that of 1 to 15 in the United States, and how was it accomplished ?

6. In what years were the gold mines of California and Australia discovered?

7. When was the maximum of the production of gold reached in California and what was its value ?

8. What was the basis of the Latin Union between France, Belgium, and Switzerland, and when was it formed?

9. When was the silver standard in Germany replaced by the gold standard?

10. What important monetary events occurred in the United States in 1873?

11. When was the Scandinavian Monetary Union formed and what was its basis?

12. What were the provisions of the United States Silver Coinage Act of 1878?

13. When did the first International Monetary Conference in Paris meet?

14. When was the Bland silver law in the United States repealed and what was substituted therefor?

15. What was the amount of the production of gold in 1892, when it reached its maximum?

16. When was the gold standard adopted in India? in the United States? in Mexico?

17. When was the National Monetary Commission appointed in the United States and for what purpose?

Chapter XVIII. Foreign Exchange. Part 1

1. What developments of modern business caused the establishment of foreign departments in large commercial houses?

2. Is there any special demand for young men with a knowledge of foreign exchange and foreign shipping?

3. What is a good definition of foreign exchange?

4. Why is the system of exchanging debts through the medium of commercial paper adopted?

5. What items are charged up to the United States as an offset amount, if balance of foreign trade is in its favor?

6. Why is a knowledge of the monetary system of foreign countries desirable for a young business man?

7. Is paper money ever accepted for its full face value outside of the country from which it emanates?

8. Is it ever legal tender in foreign countries?

9. What is the only international money, and why? 10. What is meant by the "fineness" of gold or silver coins?

11. What determines the value or price of the gold money of account in commercial countries?

12. Is the price of gold affected by either an absence or a scarcity of the supply?

13. How are gold shipments between the United States and Europe handled?

14. What is the "fineness" of commercial bars of gold?

15. What is meant by "money of account"?

16. What five countries are now comprised in the Latin Union?

17. What is the actual value of the English sovereign in American money?

18. What is meant by sterling exchange?

19. What is the meaning of the term "rate of exchange"?

20. What is the difference between direct and arbitrated exchange?

21. What causes contribute to the fluctuations in the price of exchange?

22. How can the par of exchange between any two countries be determined?

23. What is the commercial par of exchange?

24. Give a simple illustration of the commercial par of exchange.

25. State some of the peculiarities of French, German, and English quotations on exchange.

26. What is meant by the newspaper statement "foreign exchange closed firm"?

27. What is meant by "selling rates" in newspaper quotations?

Chapter XIX. Foreign Exchange

Part 2.

1. What is the basis of a foreign bill of exchange?

2. What three documents are comprised in a foreign commercial bill of exchange?

3. What is the nature of the bill of lading?

4. How are documentary bills of exchange usually sent abroad?

5. Does the duplicate set of the three documents serve the same purpose if the original set is lost?

6. What is the usual custom of exporters with regard to the disposal of commercial bills of exchange?

7. What is meant by stamping the draft "Surrender documents upon payment only"?

8. What is the foundation of most of our foreign exchange transactions and the principal source of profit in the business?

9. What is the advantage to manufacturers of the foreign exchange system?

10. What is meant by the initials "D. A." stamped upon a foreign draft?

. 11. What is meant by "D. P."?

12. What information should be obtained before commercial bills are bought?

13. What are hypothecation certificates?

14. Does the same rate of discount apply to the different classes of commercial bills?

15. Who fixes the Bank of England discount rate and how often is it fixed?

16. What is the "private discount rate" in England?

17. What is meant by "clean bills' of exchange?

18. What miscellaneous charges are made by European banks in connection with foreign exchange transactions?

19. What are the special requirements of importers in Germany with regard to foreign drafts?

20. Why is sterling exchange most convenient in the transaction of European business?

Chapter XX. Investments

1. Can all business enterprises be regarded as investments?

2. What is the more restricted meaning of investments in common use?

3. From what sources are funds obtained to pay for new issues of securities?

4. Can bank deposits properly be considered as "money in the bank"? If not, why not?

5. What percentage of all business transactions is done on credit?

6. How can credit be defined?

7. What has been the effect of the remarkable expansion of credit in the United States during the past few years ?

8. Upon what does the price and salability of securities depend?

9. What is the general effect of public confidence on the stock and bond market?

10. Name some of the sources of funds available for investment.

11. What constitutes desirability in any investment?

12. Into how many divisions may the different kinds of investments offered in the United States be grouped?

13. How are government bonds chiefly held?

14. Upon what does the payment of state bonds depend?

15. Can states and municipalities be forced to pay their bonds through the courts?

16. What is the distinction between speculation and investment in the purchase of real estate?

17. Is improved property always satisfactory as an investment?

18. What should an investor in a real estate mortgage ascertain before parting with his money?

19. Are farm mortgages a desirable form of real estate investment?

20. What kind of corporation bonds have absorbed capital more than any other investment in this country?

21. What is the chief guide for an investor in railroad bonds?

22. What rule is it desirable to observe in regard to the purchase of public utility bonds?

23. What is the great difference between bonds and stocks?

24. What class of stocks has come into special prominence in the last few years?

25. How should an investor be guided in the purchase of "industrials"?

26. Is it wise for an investor to be governed by the offer of large interest?

27. What is the safest general rule for investors with regard to interest?

Chapter XXI. The Stock Exchange

1. What is the economic value of the stock exchanges of the world?

2. Is there any reason why stocks and bonds should not be publicly dealt in?

3. What is the distinction made on the London Stock Exchange between "brokers" and "dealers"?

4. What are "room traders" on the New York Stock Exchange?

5. In what way are the stock exchanges supposed to guard the public interest?

6. What are the meanings of the terms "bull" and "bear"?

7. What are "puts" and "calls"?

8. Describe the method of speculative trading on margins.

9. What is the distinction commonly drawn between a syndicate and a pool?

10. What is the advantage to a manufacturer of engaging brokers to buy their raw material for them ?

11. What is necessary to organize a stock company?

12. How is the transfer of a certificate of stock made?

13. What is the nature of the preferred stock of a corporation?

14. What is meant by treasury stock?

15. What is the signification of the word "limited" affixed to a stock company's name?