remittance it was a first object of early banks to accomplish.

These are all uses other than those of deposit banking which banks
supplied that afterwards became in our English sense deposit banks.
By supplying these uses, they gained the credit that afterwards
enabled them to gain a living as deposit banks. Being trusted for
one purpose, they came to be trusted for a purpose quite different,
ultimately far more important, though at first less keenly pressing.
But these wants only affect a few persons, and therefore bring the
bank under the notice of a few only. The real introductory function
which deposit banks at first perform is much more popular, and it is
only when they can perform this more popular kind of business that
deposit banking ever spreads quickly and extensively. This function
is the supply of the paper circulation to the country, and it will
be observed that I am not about to overstep my limits and discuss
this as a question of currency. In what form the best paper currency
can be supplied to a country is a question of economical theory with
which I do not meddle here. I am only narrating unquestionable
history, not dealing with an argument where every step is disputed.
And part of this certain history is that the best way to diffuse
banking in a community is to allow the banker to issue banknotes of
small amount that can supersede the metal currency. This amounts to
a subsidy to each banker to enable him to keep open a bank till
depositors choose to come to it. The country where deposit banking
is most diffused is Scotland, and there the original profits were
entirely derived from the circulation. The note issue is now a most
trifling part of the liabilities of the Scotch banks, but it was
once their mainstay and source of profit. A curious book, lately
published, has enabled us to follow the course of this in detail.
The Bank of Dundee, now amalgamated with the Royal Bank of Scotland,