THE CHEQUE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 15

THE CHEQUE.

ROMANCE OF BANKING. The remarkable history of “the Cheque” is the subieot of an interesting article, in John 0’ London’s \Yeekly. Despite the importance of modern banking, its beginning wa>s inauspicious, says the writer. In the London Directory of 1677 there are thirty-seven goldsmiths jwho, kept “running cashes,” that is, acted as bankers. The goldsmiths received money?, and valuables for safe-keeping, and in return gave a receipt specifying the amount or article deposited. This receipt, in regard to the money, was the earliest form of English bank-note. Some of the goldsmiths issued documents not unlike our present-day cheques. One well-known goldsmith, Thomas Fowles, issued what is described as the oldest cheque in this country. It is dated August . 14th, 1675, and is for £9 13s 6d. In London, towards the end of the seventeenth century, banking was tending to separate from the goldsmiths’ craft. lii 1681 Francis Child inherited a goldsmith’s “whop” founded in 1559. Though his ledgers are full of goldsmiths’ accounts until 1690. from that year they are akin to those kept by the modern banker. He was the' fi»st banker who wa,s banker only, “the Father of the Banking Profession.” Later' in 1762, the banking house' of Messrs Child and Co. issued the first printed cheque. Cheque-kooks, however, w£re not ,in use until 1770, Incidentally. the house of Child is credited with introducing, well fiver one hundred years ago, the pass-book, then called a “Passage Book.” In 1833 the Legislature sanctioned the establishment of joint-stock hanks in London, provided they did not issue notes payable to bearer on demand. Then what Mr. Hartley Withers has called the “cheque-paying banks” came into being, and throughout the century they steadily extended their resources and services. By 1921 the cheque had wholly ousted the country bank-note from England and Wales.