Bill (finance)

“ You cannot create the necessity of a bank, and then plead that necessity for its establishment. In the administration of the finances, the bank acts simply as a payer and receiver. The secretary of the treasury has money in New York, and wants it in Charleston; the bank will furnish him with a check, or bill, to make the remittance, which any merchant would do just as well. ”

“ Today, Irish Americans celebrate this history and the contributions that their brethren have made to all aspects of American life-providing leadership in Government, the law, business, finance, literature, and the arts. Renewed interest in Gaelic culture has led to university courses in Irish studies, and hundreds of Saint Patrick's Day parades across the country attest to the vigor of Irish American communities. This month and throughout the year, let us recognize the gifts brought to America by children of Ireland and honor the strengths they have added to our national character. ”

“ Buying and remitting commercial long bills is no pastime for an inexperienced man. Entirely aside from the question of rate, and profit on the exchange end of the transaction, there must be taken into consideration the matter of the credit of the drawer and the drawee, the salability of the merchandise specified in the bill of lading, and a number of other important points. ”

“ No such power exists; neither the man who holds the real bill, nor the man who discounts it, has any property in the specific goods for which it was given: he as much trusts to the general ability to pay of the giver of the bill, as the holder of any fictitious bill does. The fictitious bill may, in many cases, be a bill given by a person having a large and known capital, a part of which the fictitious bill may be said in that case to represent. ”

“ In the Treasury Building and in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing one may see the entire process of manufacturing and issuing paper money. In the Treasury we see new bills exchanged for old, worn-out bills, which are ground to pieces to destroy forever their value as money.
BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING, “UNCLE SAM'S MONEY FACTORY”
But to understand the story of a dollar bill or a bill of any other value we must visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. ”

“ A's bill would have been taken in payment only by those who were acquainted with his reputation for solvency, but a banker is a person who has credit with the public generally, and whose notes are taken in payment by every one, at least in his own neighbourhood: insomuch that, by a custom which has grown into law, payment in bank notes is a complete acquittance to the payer, whereas if he has paid by a bill, he still remains liable to the debt, if the person on whom the bill is drawn fails to pay it when due. ”

“ A bill of exchange, when merely discounted, and kept in the portfolio of the discounter until it falls due, does not perform the functions or supply the place of money, but is itself bought and sold for money. It is no more currency than the public funds, or any other securities. But when a bill drawn upon one person is paid to another (or even to the same person) in discharge of a debt or a pecuniary claim, it does something for which, if the bill did not exist, money would be required: it performs the functions of currency. ”

“ Another suggestion has been made; that paper currency, which has a fund assigned for its redemption by the state, which authorizes its issue, does not constitutionally fall within the description of "bills of credit." The latter words (it is said) appropriately import bills drawn on credit merely, and not bottomed upon any real or substantial fund for their redemption; and there is a material, and well known distinction between a bill drawn upon a fund, and one drawn upon credit only. ”

“ The extent of a man's actual sales forms some limit to the amount of his real notes; and as it is highly desirable in commerce that credit should be dealt out to all persons in some sort of regular and due proportion, the measure of a man's actual sales, certified by the appearance of his bills drawn in virtue of those sales, is some rule in the case, though a very imperfect one in many respects.
"A fictitious bill, or bill of accommodation, is evidently in substance the same as any common promissory note ”

“ They deduct always, upon whatever sum they advance, the legal interest till the bill shall become due. The payment of the bill, when it becomes due, replaces to the bank the value of what had been advanced, together with a clear profit of the interest. The banker, who advances to the merchant whose bill he discounts, not gold and silver, but his own promissory notes, has the advantage of being able to discount to a greater amount by the whole value of his promissory notes, which he finds, by experience, are commonly in circulation. ”

“ When money is paid into the exchequer for debts due, or on a loan to the government, the teller who receives it gives a bill for the amount, which is an exchequer bill, or a bill of credit; a substantial definition of which will be found in the 11th section of the 8 & 9 Wm. ”

“ Will a proposition be made to authorize the government to issue exchequer bills to the amount of the annual revenue, redeemable at pleasure, to constitute a circulating medium equivalent to the notes issued by the United States Bank? ”

“ In the first class, the 'owner or holder,' &c., shall have a right to receive and recover so much current money as will purchase a good bill of exchange of the same time of payment, and upon the same place, at the current exchange of such bills, and also fifteen per cent. damages upon the value of the principal sum mentioned in such bill, and costs of protest, together with legal interest upon the value of the principal sum mentioned in such bill, from the time of protest, until the principal and damages are paid and satisfied. ”

“ On January 29, 1997, pursuant to section 115 of the URAA, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) submitted a report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate ("the Committees") that set forth the proposed tariff eliminations and corrections in existing tariff treatment, together with the advice received from the appropriate private sector advisory committee and the U.S. International Trade Commission regarding such actions. ”

“ The bill broker has, in one shape or other, to pay interest on every sixpence left with him, and that constant habit of giving interest has this grave consequence:—the bill broker cannot afford to keep much money unemployed. ”

“ For, as the bills of the banks constitute the whole of the circulating medium; they gain, gratuitously, the interest on so much of their paper as is constantly absorbed in circulation: the amount of which we know is immense. ”

“ Such bills are not always distinguishable from the bills a banker in New York may draw on a banker in London in the operation of lending money for him, but in nature they are essentially different. Whether or not any collateral is put up, the whole purpose of the drawing of finance-bills is to provide an easy way of raising money without the banker here having to go to some other bank to do it. ”

“ The doctrine that bank bills are a good tender, unless objected to at the time, on the ground that they are not money, only applies to current bills, which are redeemed at the counter of the bank on presentation, and pass at par value in business transactions at the place where offered. ”

“ The bills of banks pass as money. A bank bill or note is a promise of the bank to pay the bearer a certain sum on demand, signed by the president and cashier. It passes as money, because the bank is bound to pay it in specie if it is demanded. Paying notes thus is redeeming them. When a bank is unable to redeem all its bills, it is said to have failed, or to be broken; and the bill holders suffer loss, unless some security has been provided. ”

“ XXIX Chapter XI. The Influence of Credit on Prices. BillB of exchange, telegraph drafts, bank-notes, and cheques may be regarded as instruments of credit — A bill of exchange is a written promise to pay a certain amount at a fixed date ”

“ The custom of keeping the spare cash reserved for immediate use or against contingent demands, in the hands of a banker, and making all payments, except small ones, by orders on bankers, is in this country spreading to a continually larger portion of the public. If the person making the payment, and the person receiving it, keep their money with the same banker, the payment takes place without any intervention of money, by the mere transfer of its amount in the banker's books from the credit of the payer to that of the receiver. ”

“ Then comes the term bills of credit, without any reference of explanatory words; but as it necessarily relates to the payment of money, the word bill must be taken as a paper, containing some evidence that a certain sum is due, to the person to whom it was emitted or issued, or by whom it was held. It is a word of legal import, as well defined as any in the English language, according to the subject-matter to which it is applied. 'A bill is a common engagement for money given by one man to another ”

“ Some persons, for want of knowing this system of raising money, are obliged to sacrifice their property by locking it up in mortgages for one half its value, and spend the other half in paying solicitors’ enormous bills, and expenses of mortgage deeds, &c. We have particularly to observe, that the parties{374} pay all expenses of postage, to and from, also bill stamps, and our net commission of eightpence in the pound, which commission, with money for stamps, &c. ”

“ At the adoption of the National Constitution, the people, to their wide-spread cost, had become familiar with bills of credit and their incidents, while all conversant with Colonial history must have known the part which bills of credit played for nearly a century, not only as a help to currency, but as a tender, constituting paper money. ”

“ Power to sell in case of non-payment of advances and in the event of the non-payment of such bill or note or debt when due, such bank or private person may sell the said timber, boards, deals, staves or other lumber, and retain the proceeds, or so much thereof as will be equal to the amount due to the bank or private person upon such bill or note or debt, with any interest or costs, returning the overplus, if any, to such indorser. ”

“ And the purchase, discount, or sale, or a bona fide bill of exchange, payable at another place than the place of such purchase, discount, or sale, at not more than the current rate of exchange for sight drafts in addition to the interest, shall not be considered as taking or receiving a greater rate of interest. ”

“ But in modern bill-broking the credit of the bill-broker is a vital element. The lender considers that the bill-broker—no matter whether an individual, a company, or a firm—has considerable wealth, and he takes the 'bills,' relying that the broker would not venture that wealth by guaranteeing them unless he thought them good. ”

“ The quantum of taxes already imposed is so great as to make it useless to impose any others to a considerable amount. A bill has, however, passed both Houses, payable in specie, bank notes, or your notes, for eighteen thousand pounds. ”

“ Bank Commissioners to inspect the bank and certify that this has been done; no loan to be made to a director for more than half his shares; in a $100,000 bank no one person to owe it more than $8,000, and so on according to a scale; no loan to be made to an officer; debts, exclusive of deposits, not to exceed one and a-half times the capital; the circulation never to exceed the capital, and one-third of it to be held in specie; a State officer to register and countersign the notes, and to guard the limit for each bank as returned to him by the Commissioners; tax to be one-half of one per cent. ”

“ Loans are usually applied for to the district committee which each bank has, with a statement of the property, the amount required, and all documents necessary to prove title and freedom from encumbrance. Properties may be valued by a special valuation, or a multiple of the net income as assessed to the land tax may be taken. ”

“ The Wish of every discerning honest Man must be as obvious, viz that as many of the Bills may sink in the Loan Offices as the People can possibly spare, and as soon as possible. I think therefore you have judgd right of their Views. It would be an Act of Charity and a great Service to the publick if those who can afford to put their Money to Interest would ease their poorer fellow Citizens who are possessd of those Bills, by exchanging them for other Bills without a Discount. ”

“ It is the exclusive function of the general government to coin and create money and regulate its value. All bank issues designed to circulate as money should be suppressed. The circulating medium, whether of metal or paper, shall be issued by the government, and made a full legal-tender for all debts, duties, and taxes in the United States, at its stamped value. ”

“ A third office should be appointed for discounting bills, tallies, and notes, by which all tallies of the Exchequer, and any part of the revenue, should at stated allowances be ready money to any person, to the great advantage of the Government, and ease of all such as are any ways concerned in public undertakings.
A fourth office for lending money upon land securities at 4 per cent. interest, by which the cruelty and injustice of mortgagees would be wholly restrained, and a register of mortgages might be very well kept, to prevent frauds. ”

“ And the President of the United States shall cause so much of the loan, made of the Bank of the United States, pursuant to the eleventh section of the act, by which it is incorporated, to be paid off, in sums not less than fifty thousand dollars, as, in his opinion, the state of the treasury may, from time to time, admit, out of any monies which may be in the treasury, having due regard to the exigencies of government, and the appropriations made and to be made by law. ”