Company News and Views

Each large city has its clearing-house system. To establish a
clearing-house a number of banks associate themselves together, under
certain regulations, for the purpose of exchanging daily at one time
and place the cheques and other commercial paper which they hold
against each other. The usual officers are a president, a secretary, a
treasurer, and manager, and a clearing-house committee. The cheques,
etc., which the banks take to the clearing-house are called the
clearing-house exchanges, and the total amount of paper exchanged is
called the day”s clearings. Those banks which bring a less amount than
they take away are obliged to make the difference good in cash or its
equivalent within a fixed time upon the same day. Suppose, for
illustration, that a clearing-house association consists of five
banks–A, B, C, D, and E–and that Bank A took to the clearing-house
cheques against B, C, D, and E amounting to $20,000, and that B, C, D,
and E took to the clearing-house cheques against A amounting to
$21,000. Then A is on this particular day a debtor bank, and owes the
clearing-house, or the other banks through the clearing-house, $1000.
The payment of the balances by the debtor banks and the receipt of the
balances by the creditor banks complete each day”s transactions. As
the total amount brought to the clearing-house is always the same as
the amount taken away, so the balances due from the debtor banks must
be exactly equal to the amounts due the creditor banks. The clearings
in New York City in one day amount to from $100,000,000 to
$200,000,000, and the actual cash handled, if any, need only be for
the actual debit balances. Usually once a week (in some cities
oftener) the banks of a city make to their clearing-house a report,
based on daily balances, of their condition. The clearing-house
establishes a fellowship among banks that has already proved in times
of money panics of the greatest service to themselves and the
community.

The modern principle may be looked at from two points of view. First,
_the seller need not make known any defects which the buyer can find
out himself_. Suppose a man is thinking of buying a horse that is
(though he does not know it) blind in one eye. The law says that the
buyer ought to be able to see such a defect quite as readily as the
seller, and if he does not the fault is his own. Blindness in one eye
is quite as easily seen as would be the lack of an ear or tail. And
this principle applies very generally in all purchases. It covers all
visible defects. Nor can any one find much fault with this rule,
because the buyer generally has as good eyesight as the seller, and if
he takes pains, as he should, he is able to discover all ordinary
defects. Furthermore, the buyer doubtless often knows quite as much
about the things he purchases as the seller.

Integra Business Systems and Computer Services, Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership
Integra Business Systems and Computer Services, Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership

to be
One aspect of our foreign trade is not so well understood as it ought
to be. Our foreign commerce is carried on largely in foreign ships.
The reason is that no vessel is allowed to be registered as belonging
to a United States owner unless she is built in the United States, and
it therefore seems as if our ship-builders could not compete (in
price) in the building of steel and iron ships with those of Great
Britain and Germany. Formerly, when wooden ships were used, our
foreign trade was carried on in our own vessels, and our ‘clipper’
sailing vessels beat the world. In 1859 seventy per cent. in value of
our foreign trade was carried in American vessels. Since that date the
proportion has decreased steadily until in 1896-97 it was only eleven
per cent., and for 1897-98 it was even less than this. During the five
years 1881-85 it averaged barely twenty per cent. Taking into
consideration tonnage only the proportion at present varies from
twenty five to thirty per cent., showing that the American vessels are
used for carrying the cheaper sorts of goods. The aggregate tonnage
burden of vessels belonging to the United States registered as engaged
in the foreign trade 1896 was for 792,870 tons. For the same year the
aggregate tonnage burden of vessels belonging to Great Britain
engaged in the foreign trade was considerably more than ten times that
amount. Of our export trade to Europe United States vessels carry only
five and one half per cent., and of our export trade to Africa only
four and one half per cent. But of our export trade to Asia and
Oceanica our own vessels carry twenty six and one half per cent.,
while of our export trade to other countries on the American continent
our own vessels carry nearly forty per cent. But as our Atlantic trade
is seventy six per cent. of the whole, and as our trade elsewhere than
on the Atlantic is more than one third carried by sailing-vessels, it
is evident how largely our steamship ocean carrying trade has been
allowed to fall into the hands of foreigners. Seven tenths of our
total export trade, and nearly two thirds of our total foreign trade,
both export and import, are carried in British vessels. The next
greatest carriers of our foreign trade are, first, the Germans, then
ourselves, then the Norwegians, then the Dutch, then the French, then
the Belgians.

Another class who cannot make contracts are DRUNKEN PERSONS. Once the
law regarded a drunken man as fully responsible for his acts, and if
he made a contract he was obliged to execute or fulfil it. He could
not shield himself by saying he did not know what he was doing at the
time. The court sternly frowned on him and said: ‘No matter what was
your condition at the time of making it, you must carry it out.’ This
was the penalty for his misdeed. It may be the courts thought that by
requiring him to fulfil his contracts he would be more careful and
restrain his appetite. Whatever the courts may have thought, they have
changed their opinions regarding his liability for his contracts made
under such conditions. Now they hold that he need not carry them out
if he desires to escape from them. There is, however, one exception
to this rule. If he has given a note in the ordinary form, and this
has been taken by a third person in good faith who did not know of the
maker”s condition at the time of making it, he must pay. But, we
repeat, the third person must act in good faith in taking it, for if
he knew that the maker was drunk at that time he cannot require him to
pay any more than the person to whom it was first given.

Heritage and Granules Enter Into Strategic Alliance for the Development, Supply and Marketing of Generic Products for the U.S. Market
Heritage and Granules Enter Into Strategic Alliance for the Development, Supply and Marketing of Generic Products for the U.S. Market

use
The name DEBENTURES is given to a form of municipal bond in common
use. Nearly all the large sums of money used by States and cities for
the building of State or municipal buildings, bridges, canals,
water-works, etc., are raised through the issue of bonds
(_debentures_), which are sold, usually at a price a little below par,
to large financial institutions, banks, and insurance companies.
Generally speaking, such bonds are good _securities_, and are
marketable anywhere.

4. FRANCE. (_a_) Describe the conditions which (1) conduce toward, and
(2) militate against, France”s being a great commercial nation. (_b_)
Give an account of the distinctive manufactures of France.

3. (_a_) What provision is usually made for the redemption of
municipal bonds which have a long period to run? (_b_) What is
meant when we say that a certain railway is in the hands of a
receiver? (_c_) Give some of the advantages which stock companies
have over partnerships.