The distinctive function of the banker, says Ricardo, 'begins as
soon as he uses the money of others;' as long as he uses his own
money he is only a capitalist. Accordingly all the banks in Lombard
Street (and bill brokers are for this purpose only a kind of
bankers) hold much money belonging to other people on running
account and on deposit. In continental language, Lombard Street is
an organization of credit, and we are to see if it is a good or bad
organization in its kind, or if, as is most likely, it turn out to
be mixed, what are its merits and what are its defects?

The main point on which one system of credit differs from another is
'soundness.' Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a
certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? and is that
confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more
simplycredit is a set of promises to pay; will those promises be
kept? Especially in banking, where the 'liabilities,' or promises to
pay, are so large, and the time at which to pay them, if exacted, is
so short, an instant capacity to meet engagements is the cardinal
excellence.

All which a banker wants to pay his creditors is a sufficient supply
of the legal tender of the country, no matter what that legal tender
may be. Different countries differ in their laws of legal tender,
but for the primary purposes of banking these systems are not
material. A good system of currency will benefit the country, and a
bad system will hurt it. Indirectly, bankers will be benefited or
injured with the country in which they live; but practically, and
for the purposes of their daily life, they have no need to think,
and never do think, on theories of currency. They look at the matter