CENTRAL BANKS.
For the guidance of those who may be unfamiliar with the precise meaning of the term " Central Banks," it may be useful perhaps to explain that it is the description usually applied to those banks in the different countries which do not engage in ordinary competitive banking transactions, or at all events those banks whose chief concern is with the control of currency, the custodianship of the central gold reserve of the country, and the custodianship of the cash reserves of the remaining banks. Usually, too, the term applies to those banks outside State control, though, conceivably, a State bank might fulfil many of the functions of a Central bank. Those, however, who may desire to understand more fully the functions of a Central bank—and it is a very topical subject at the present time— cannot do better than peruse the full text of an address which was delivered on the subject last year before the Vic- torian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia, by Sir Ernest Harvey, the Comptroller of the Bank of England. This has been reprinted and published by the London General Press, and can be obtained for the price of two shillings.
A. W. K.
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