THIS LETTER WILL BE PRESENTED TO YOU BY GRACE PERRY, WHO IS RECOMMENDED TO YOUR KIND ATTENTION, AND IS SUPPLIED WITH OUR CIRCULAR NOTES, THE VALUE OF WHICH PLEASE FURNISH AT THE CURRENT RATE FOR SIGHT BILLS ON LONDON, WITHOUT ANY EXPENSE TO US. AFTER YOU HAVE EXAMINED THIS LETTER, PLEASE RETURN IT TO THE BEARER, IN WHOSE HANDS IT WILL REMAIN UNTIL THE EXPIRATION OF THE CIRCULAR NOTES."
These Circular Notes approximate in certain respects in kind towards the cheques of the Cheque-Bank of London: both are bought at the outset and paid for in full on the spot; and both are drawn _upon one Bank_, which is the ultimate Drawee and Payer. In two essential respects, however, the notes differ from the cheques: the cheques are payable to Bearer without any indorsement by anybody, and so have a much more _generalized_ purchasing-power than the notes, which have to be indorsed by the payee (not named indeed in the notes but in the letter accompanying them), as they are negotiated in a way preliminary to their ultimate payment by the single bank on which they are drawn; and also the notes, like all other foreign bills of exchange, are subject in their value to the fluctuations of International Exchange, while the cheques in their value are independent of commercial exchanges "in favor" or "against" any country, and entitle the bearer to so many pounds sterling in value according to English coinage without any possible discount or premium. These London Cheques, accordingly, approach much nearer to the character of Money than any other form of Credit yet devised, except Bank bills undoubtedly convertible; and already take their place as one of the _media_ in the international trade, and are sold in New York by authorized agents of the Cheque-Bank, as they have long been by such agents in all English and Colonial and in many foreign cities.
These _Ten_ are the principle instruments in Credit-Exchanges throughout the world; and we pass now, as proposed, to the next section of our subject, namely, the Advantages of Credit.
3. As introducing these advantages and also as illustrating them, we call attention first to the antiquity of many of the forms of Credit, a point upon which much fresh light has been cast by recent discoveries in, and ability to decipher the cuneiform writing of, the ancient Assyria and Babylonia. It is to the credit of Credit, that the earliest of civilized men seem to have perceived its nature, to have seized upon its powers, and to have realized for themselves some of its advantages. Credit is natural and legitimate. The moderns have invented new forms of it, and have tested its capacities to the utmost, but the ancients know it well in several of its instruments, and vindicate their own insight into the recesses of Exchanges by tablets and documents now known and read of all men.