The first question which suggests itself with respect to banking in its present form is probably the recurrent question which is always asked as to all economic forms - how far is it permanent, and how far is it merely a transitional stage of activity which will sooner or later pass into another? The preliminary answer to this question is afforded when we inquire how permanent the principle of division of labor is likely to be. If it be assumed that large-scale production is a desirable feature of economic organization and that the development of skill in special lines is to be encouraged, the conclusion seems almost inevitable that a regime of continuously greater division of labor may be expected to go on indefinitely developing. This is stated with full consciousness that some theorists believe that such division of labor has been carried too far and that in the future there may be a tendency toward greater individualization of production, with a less highly interdependent relationship of the different classes of society. A more difficult phase of the question is raised when it is inquired whether division of labor on the present basis is to be regarded as largely an outgrowth of what is called capitalistic enterprise, and whether, as it advances in the scope and efficiency of its undertakings, it may not be possible gradually to do away with what we now call individual ownership or capitalist production, and to substitute community effort or production. Such a discussion in its broad terms would be out of place here; and it is desired only to draw attention to the relation of banking to this phase of economic inquiry. There have been some theorists, especially within recent years, who have not hesitated to express the view that the use of money and credit in their present form is injurious, and to say that as industry is socialized, not only money, but also probably banking as we now know it, will become obsolete. Apparently the basis of such views is found in the thought that an omnipotent state, with the entire resources of the community in its control and with unlimited means of information open to it, will be able to assign duties artificially to given classes or individuals, and thereby to determine what shall and what shall not be produced, and the proportions in which goods shall exchange.