Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/94

86 house system enabled the banks to settle every day with each other almost simultaneously. The hour for exchanges was fixed at ten o'clock The process is simple. Each bank is represented by two clerks—one of whom occupies the desk assigned to his bank, and the other, a messenger, carries a receptacle containing the checks and drafts received the day before on the other banks, which are assorted in envelopes in the same order as the desks where they are to be delivered. These are the exchanges. The Clearing-house hall is provided with several tiers of desks, one desk for each bank, with name and number upon it—the banks being numbered according to their age, as, for instance the Bank of New York is No. 1, the Manhattan Company No. 2, the Merchants' National Bank No. 3, the Mechanics' National Bank No. 4, etc. The messengers take their places in a line outside of the tier of desks, each opposite the desk of his own bank. About two minutes before ten the manager calls the house to order, and at the exact moment strikes a bell. The messengers at once move forward, one after another in regular order, delivering the exchanges, and usually make the entire circuit of the room in ten minutes. Thus every bank has been visited, which otherwise would have occupied six or eight hours. The clerks at the desks ate allowed thirty-five minutes after the delivery of the exchanges to enter, report, and prove their work. If any errors are discovered after that time fines are imposed for each error, which are collected monthly by drafts on the banks fined. A fine is the penalty, also, for tardiness. The entire work of the morning is usually accomplished in less than one hour. The debit banks pay to the manager in legal tender notes or coin before half-past one o'clock of the same day, and the credit banks receive immediately after that hour the amounts due to them, respectively; thus with one process yesterday's transactions of all the banks in the city are settled. The magnitude of the business seems almost fabulous, so quietly and quickly is it performed. The statistics show the immense progress of the monetary transactions since it was