In the United States the subjects of banking practice and Foreign Exchange are not so well systematized or generally understood as in some of the older countries of Europe. In the different states of the Union there are different laws and usages, and these differences will doubtless continue to exist for many years. Gradually, however, experience will prove beyond question what banking practices are best suited to the needs and conditions of our people, and there will finally be evolved a national system of banking practice.

The authors of this volume have aimed to describe and explain the best practices that American banking experience has yet produced. The chapters on "Banking Practice," written by an educated and experienced banker, represent the fruits of personal experience as well as of study and observation. This part of the volume, it is hoped, will be found to contain suggestions for which men who have been long in the banking business will be grateful, and should also prove a most valuable aid to any young man desiring to fit himself either for a banking career or for general business.

The chapters on Foreign Exchange contain in brief compass what has not been hitherto given, so far as the writer knows, in any single volume - namely, a clear statement of both the theory and practice of the subject. Americans are less at home in this difficult field than are Europeans, because, in the past, international transactions in finance, on account of our relative isolation and commercial independence, have been less important here than in Europe. Every year, however, is bringing us into closer financial and commercial contact with foreign nations, and foreign exchange has become a subject which every banker, if he wishes to satisfy his customers, must thoroughly understand. Mr. Escher's chapters will give any banker a scientific and practical grasp of this difficult subject.

This book, it hardly need be said, will yield the best results if it is read in connection with the volumes in this series entitled Corporation Finance, Money And Banking, and Investment And Speculation. All these treat of subjects of vital importance to the banker.

Mr. Jefferson desires me to acknowledge for him the courtesy of The Bankers' Publishing Company and Mr. Alfred R. Barrett, C. P. A., with whose permission he has reproduced from Mr. Barrett's excellent manual on "Modern Banking Methods," forms 76, 77, 78, 88, 118 and 120 in this volume. He is also under obligation to the following authorities: George M. Coffin, "The A B C of Banks and Banking"; George Rae, "The Country Banker"; Fiske's "The Modern Bank"; L. J. Tompkins, "Law of Promissory Notes, Etc."; A. S. Bolles, "Money, Banking and Finance"; Horace White, "Money and Banking"; Kirkbride and Sterrett, "The Modern Trust Company"; Pratt's "Digest."

Joseph French Johnson.