Concerning the invention of Venetian banks, there appear to be several opinions. Some say the first was founded in 1150, others in 1157. There was no doubt a sort of bank established at one or other of these dates for the purpose of assisting in arranging a loan for the Venetians, and that this institution was called the ' Chamber of Loans;' but the Bank of Venice was not founded till 1171.

There can be little doubt that the word 'banking' was a term originally applied to the business of those persons whose chief trade was to lend out their own money, and that the back-bone of their establishments did not consist of the money of other people, which was intrusted to them in the form of deposits. In this opinion most writers appear to agree. That such a business would develop itself into what we find in modern institutions is only natural; as simply time would be required to prove that other people's money could be employed by the banker to the advantage of both himself and the depositor.

We learn that money-lending was carried on very extensively after the return from the captivity; that the poor obtained money from the rich by mortgaging their lands, houses, etc. The parable of the talents distinctly indicates that money, as the representative of capital, was not to be allowed to lie idle. We find also that the Athenians, as early as B.C. 146, converted their temples into banks of deposit, from which they were in the habit of lending to the public at interest.

The business of banking at Athens was in full vigour in the time of Demosthenes, and the rate of interest was left absolutely free by Solon. Solon also had the good sense to see the absurdity of imprisonment for debt, and abolished it. The first mention of banking at Rome is in the year B.C. 352, when the Plebeians were in deep distress, and had to borrow money from new creditors to pay off the principal and interest of their old debts, and so got deeper and deeper into debt. Another class of bankers, who were a permanent institution, were called mensularii or numularii, who both acted for the State, and also received the deposits of private individuals. They were also authorised by the State to act as exchangers, and give Roman coins for foreign ones at a fixed rate of exchange. Those who were entirely private bankers were called argentarii. These private bankers transacted their business very much as many modern ones do; they kept their customers' accounts, and they introduced one of the greatest conveniences in the system of banking, that of making payments by means of cheques, called attributio or prescriptio. They also made use of promissory notes.

The progress, however, in the science of banking attained to but a feeble growth either among the Greeks or Romans, and it was left to countries whose commercial prosperity has reached that of England more particularly, to push to their present perfection the banking facilities which are now afforded to those engaged in commerce, etc.

The bank next in European importance to the one established by the magistrates at Barcelona in 1401 was the Bank of St. George at Genoa, which, like the Bank of England, came into existence through the necessities of the State-large sums of money having been borrowed from the citizens from time to time, the interest of which was paid out of the revenue. It became at length too extensive an affair to be properly conducted unless under the management of an efficiently organised administration; which having been established, the creditors' claims were consolidated to form a capital, with which the Bank of St. George commenced its career. The Austrians pillaged the Bank of St. George in 1746, from which it never recovered.

The Bank of Amsterdam was established in 1609, adopting the same course as the Venetians-receiving the clipped and worn coins at a value equal to their weight in bullion, with the deduction for management and the expenses of recoinage. This Bank of Amsterdam appears to have set an example worthy of all praise, for it received the coins of all nations for the purpose of encouraging the bullion trade. The bank, by this means, prevented for the time the wear and tear of the coins by keeping them in their vaults, whilst the bank receipts circulated as notes, giving the bank the right to dispose of the bullion if not redeemed after a certain period of time had elapsed.

The citizens of Hamburg established a bank ten years later. It granted loans upon the security of precious stones among other peculiarities, and has even now a reputation attaching to it of adhering to antiquated and cumbrous systems, which one would hardly expect in a city which has reached that high degree of commercial importance which Hamburg may be said justly to have attained.

In reviewing the development of banking institutions, as they were established in different parts of the world, we must of necessity keep before us the commercial standing of the countries in which these banks were created. Those nations which, from their geographical position, are shut out of the principal lines of commercial traffic, will be less likely to advance in that direction in which the facilities of banking are suggested by necessity. The perfection of our present system of banking-which in many respects is yet far from quite perfect-could never have been brought about in the absence of that enormous trade, and the consequent necessity for economy of time and means, which the existing inhabitants of Great Britain have lived to see. It is not our intention to introduce the figures by which England has for so long a period dwarfed the efforts of every other country, in respect of either exports or imports. It is simply our intention to show that banking, as a great part of the machinery by which commercial transactions are conducted, could. only have been advanced to its present state of perfection by the strain which has been constantly brought to bear upon old and cumbrous systems, until they have been gradually swept away by the genius and labour of a hardworking, practical, and enlightened people, whose mercantile prosperity has caused them to seek by degrees for improved methods.