The ' Borse' at Berlin, the place where the public securities are negotiated, is a meeting of bankers and merchants as well as of the brokers, official and non-official. The official hours are from 12 o'clock till 2.30 p.m.

The quotations are either for 'cash' or for the ' account.'

The settlement takes place through the Stock Exchange clearing house (Borsen Liquidations Bureau) once a month, and extends over five days as follows :

Three days before the last of the month : declaration of options.

Two days before the last of the month : the accounts are sent in to the clearing house at the making-up prices.

The day before the last of the month : the accounts are handed back from the clearing house.

The last of the month : delivery of stock against payment at the making-up prices.

The first of the following month : settlement of the differences.

The transactions in securities are either 'fix' or'fix and taglich,' or mit Anhilndigung fix and taglich.'

In the first case the business is settled on a fixed day, in the second the buyer is obliged to take up the stock at the latest on a fixed day, but has the option of demanding delivery earlier; in the latter case the seller has to deliver the stock at the latest on a fixed date but can do so earlier.

A remarkable feature of the dealings in stocks at Berlin is the existence of the so-called 'Mittelcurs,' which we shall now explain.

The orders for buying and selling given to the official brokers are either ' at best' or ' at the price of the day but not above or below a certain price. These two kinds of orders, the limited and the unlimited, are made use of by the brokers to fix the price of the day : the ' Mittelcurs.'

Thus there exists at Berlin for each ' cash - stock only one price each day, at which all transactions are settled. The ' mittelcurs' now is that price at which all orders of sales limited below and all orders of purchases limited above as well as all orders given ' best' are executed, whilst the orders given for that price may only be partially executed.

This ' Mittelcurs' is generally qualified either by a ' bz,' i.e. bezalt, paid, or by a ' G,' i.e. Geld, money, or by a ' B,' i.e. Brief, letter, which indicates to what extent the orders at that particular price could be executed.

This ' Mittelcurs' is always fixed at the closing of the ' Borse' and sometimes therefore materially differs from the 'fixed' prices at which the stock might have been dealt in during 'change.' Most of the cash transactions and commission orders are given to the brokers to be executed 'zum Course,' i.e. at the 'Mittelcurs;' all time bargains, however, as well as some of the cash business, /. i. that done as 'arbitrages * are concluded at 'fixed' (feste) prices, which are at once definitely settled.

A good deal is done at Berlin in 'options.' The premium given for these is not, however, paid in advance, as in London, but is included in the price of the stock and only paid, as a kind of forfeit money, if afterwards the contract is cancelled. If the buyer pays this premium it is called 'Vorpramie3 (call), if the seller pays it, it is called 'Ruckpramie' (put).

The business called 'Stellage' is the London 'put and call;' and the 'Nochgeschafte' are the same as the 'put of more' and 'call of more' in London.

English and Continental Banking briefly contrasted.

We cannot, we think, better begin this chapter than by remarking, what is, however, already pretty well known. that banking as understood and practised by the numerous English and Scotch Joint Stock or private banks is as yet little developed on the continent.

In Great Britain bankers are essentially the middlemen between the capitalists and the traders and merchants, the great connecting link between the lending and the borrowing classes. On the continent banks and bankers are mostly themselves engaged in transactions, which according to English notions would belong to the province of merchants. Thus we see such great institutions as the Comptoir d'Escompte, the Societe Generale, the Disconto Gesellschaft and the Credit Anstalt, mixed up in transactions with foreign governments in a way in which no English bank is likely to be. To enable the reader the better to contrast the different systems upon which English and continental banking are conducted, we will briefly state in what respects they differ.

The large profits which the great English banks make are derived chiefly from the employment of money placed with them on deposit or current account by their customers. It is customary to keep a fairly good balance on the current account on which little or no interest is allowed, and a certain proportion of these aggregate balances is employed in making advances and in discounting bills. The conditions under which English banks are thus able to earn the greater part of their dividends, do not exist to any extent as yet on the continent. On the one hand it is not the custom for people to keep banking accounts, and on the other there is scarcely that amount of sound commercial paper afloat which would enable bankers safely to employ their money by such means. The system of paying by cheques likewise is very little cultivated on the continent; most people keep the money required for their daily wants in their own tills and discharge their liabilities in bank notes. This accounts for the fact that both France and Germany have a larger circulation of bank notes than England, though the extent of their commerce is smaller. The continental system necessitates the maintenance of a larger bullion reserve, which means capital locked up, which would otherwise as a rule be usefully employed as is the case in England, where the cheque is daily becoming a more efficient substitute for the note.

Unable to earn dividends in the way the English banks do, the continental banks have to seek other channels in which to work profitably to themselves and others.