40 lbs. weight. It has a fragrant aromatic odour, much resembling that of benzoin, with a warm bitterish taste. It is viscid, of a deep reddish brown colour, and of the consistence of honey.-(Thomson's Dispensatory.)

4. Storax (Fr. Storax; Ger. Stryaxbroom; It. Storace; Sp. Azumbar; Lat. Styrax; Arab. Usteruk), the produce of a tree (Styrax officinale) growing in the south of Europe and the Levant. Only two kinds are found in the shops: storax in tears, which is pure, and storax in the lump, or red storax, which is mixed with sawdust and other impurities. Both kinds are brought from the Levant in chests and boxes. Storax has a fragrant odour; and a pleasant, sub-acidulous, slightly pungent, and aromatic taste; it is of a reddish brown colour, and brittle.-(Thomson's Dispensatory.)

5. Tolu, Balsam of (Fr. Baume de Tolu; Ger. Tolutanischer Balsam ; Sp. Balsamo de Tolu). The tree which yields this balsam is the same as that which yields the balsam of Peru; it being merely the white balsam of Peru, hardened by exposure to the air.

6. Benzoin, or Benjamin (Fr. Benzoin; Ger. Benzoe; Sp. Bengui; It. Belzuino; Lat. Benzoinum; Arab. Liban; Hind. Luban; Jav. Menian Malay, Caminyan), is an article of much greater commercial importance than any of those balsams previously mentioned. It is obtained from a tree (Styrax Benzoin) cultivated in Sumatra and Borneo, but particularly the former. The plants produce in the seventh year. The balsam is obtained by making incisions in the bark, when it exudes, and is scraped off. During the first three years, the balsam is of a clear white colour, after which it becomes brown. Having borne 10 or 12 years, the tree is cut down, a very inferior article being obtained by scraping the wood. The balsams procured in these different stages are distinguished in commerce, and differ widely in value. Benzoin has a very agreeable, fragrant odour, but hardly any taste. It is imported in large masses, packed in chests and casks. It should be chosen full of clear, light-coloured, and white spots, having the appearance of white marble when broken: it is rarely, however, to be met with in so pure a state, but the nearer the approach to it the better. The worst sort is blackish, and full of impurities.-(Milburn's Orient. Com., and private information.)

Mr. Crawfurd has given the following interesting and authentic details with respect to this article:-Benzoin, or frankincense, called in commercial language Benjamin, is a more general article of commerce than camphor, though its production be confined to the same islands. Benzoin is divided in commerce, like camphor, into three sorts (head, belly, foot), according to quality, the comparative value of which may be expressed by the figures 105, 45, 18. Benzoin is valued in proportion to its whiteness, semi-transparency, and freedom from adventitious matters. According to its purity, the first sort may be bought at the emporia to which it is brought, at from 50 to 100 dollars per picul (1334 lbs.); the second from 25 to 45 dollars; and the worst from 8 to 20 dollars. According to Linschoten, benzoin, in his time, cost, in the market of Sunda Calapa or Jacatra, from 19 to 25,40% Spanish dollars the picul. By Niebuhr's account, the worst benzoin of the Indian islands is more esteemed by the Arabs than their own best olibanum, or frankincense. In the London market, the best benzoin is fourteen times more valuable than olibanum, and even the worst 2 times more valuable. Benzoin usually sells in England at 10s. per pound. The quantity generally imported into England, in the time of the monopoly, was 312 cwts. The principal use of this commodity is as incense, and it is equally in request in the religious ceremonies of Catholics, Mohammedans, Hindus, and Chinese. It is also used as a luxury, by the great in fumigations in their houses; and the Japanese chiefs are fond of smoking it with tobacco. Its general use among nations in such various states of civilisation, and the steady demand for it in all ages, declare that it is one of those commodities, the taste for which is inherent in our nature, and not the result of a particular caprice with any individual people, as in the case of Malay camphor with the Chinese.--(Indian Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 418.) The imports of benzoin, at an average of the three years ending with 1830, were 36,397 lbs. a year.

An inferior description of benzoin, the produce of a different tree from the Styrax benzoin, is produced in Siam. It is comparatively cheap and abundant.

7. Dragon's Blood (Fr. Sang-Dragon; Lat. Sanguis Draconis; Arab. Damulákhwain ; Hind. Heraduky), the produce of a large species of rattan (Calamus Draco) growing on the north and north-east coast of Sumatra, and in some parts of Borneo. It is largely exported to China, and also to India and Europe. It is either in oval drops, wrapped up in flag-leaves, or in large and generally more impure masses, composed of smaller tears. It is externally and internally of a deep dusky red colour, and when powdered it should become of a bright crimson; if it be black, it is worth little. When broken and held up against a strong light, it is somewhat transparent: it has little or no smell or taste; what it has of the latter is resinous and astringent. Dragon's blood in drops is much preferable to that in cakes; the latter being more friable, and less compact, resinous, and pure than the former. Being a very costly article, it is very apt to be adulterated. Most of its alloys dissolve like gums in water, or crackle in the fire without proving inflammable; whereas the genuine dragon's blood readily melts and catches flame, and is scarcely acted on by watery liquors.

It sells in the market of Singapore at from 15 to 35 dollars per picul, according to quality: but the Chinese have the art of purifying and refining it, when it sells at from 80 to 100 dollars per picul. The price of the best dragon's blood in the London market, varies from 211. to 251. per cwt.-(Milburn's Orient. Com.; Crawfurd's East. Archip.; and private information.)

The nett duty on balsams imported into Great Britain in 1832 amounted to 2,4407. 88. 10d. BALTIMORE, a large and opulent city of the United States, in Maryland, situated on the north side of the Patapsco river, about 14 miles above its entrance into Chesapeake bay, in lat. 39° 17′ N. long. 76° 36′ W. Population in 1830, 81,000. The harbour is spacious, convenient, and the water deep. The exports principally consist of tobacco, wheat and wheat-flour, hemp and flax, flax-seed, Indian corn, and other agricultural products, timber, iron, &c. The imports principally consist of cottons and woollens, sugar, coffee, tea, wine, brandy, silk goods, spices, rum, &c. There were in 1830 ten banks in this city, with an aggregate capital of 6,888,691 dollars; the total dividends for the same year amounted to 362,118 dollars, being at the rate of 5 per cent. There were also four marine insurance companies, with a capital of 1,200,000 dollars, producing a dividend of nearly 15 per cent. on the capital paid up; and two fire insurance companies, one of which is on the principle of mutual guarantee.-(Statement by J. H. Goddard, New York Daily Advertiser, 29th of January, 1831.) The registered, enrolled, and licensed tonnage belonging to Baltimore, in December, 1831, amounted to 43,263 tons, of which 17,575 tons were employed in the coasting trade. The total value of the articles imported into Maryland, in the year ending the 30th of September, 1832, was 4,629,303 dollars; the total value of the exports during the same year being 4,499,918 do. (Papers laid before Congress, 15th of February, 1833.) In Maryland the dollar is worth 78. 6d. currency, 17. sterling being=17. 13s. 4d. currency For an account of the currency of the different states of the Union, with a table of the value of the dollar in each, see NEW YORK; and to it also the reader is referred for an account of the foreign trade of the United States. Weights and measures same as those of England.

Exports of Flour.-Baltimore is one of the principal ports of the United States for the export of flour. None is allowed to be shipped from any port of the Union till it has been inspected by public officers appointed for the purpose, and its quality branded on the barrel.-(See NEW YORK.) It appears from the reports of these officers that the flour inspected at Baltimore during the five years ending with 1830, was as follows:

In 1832 there were inspected 518,674 barrels, and 17,544 half barrels of wheat flour. The inspections of tobacco during the same year amounted to 24,156 hhds.

[The banking capital of Baltimore had increased in the early part of 1837, to $8,611,359. The registered, enrolled, and licensed tonnage belonging to it, on the last day of September, 1837, was 67,107 tons; of which 31,621 tons were employed in the coasting trade, and 6799 tons in steam navigation. The total value of the articles imported into Maryland during the year, ending on the day just mentioned, was $7,857,033; and the total value of the exports for the same period was $3,789,917.-Am. Ed.]

BAMBOO (Fr. Bambou, Bambochés; Ger. Indianischer Rohr; It. Bambu; Hind. Rans; Malay, Bûlûh; Jav. Preng), a species of cane, the Bambos arundinacea of botanists. It grows every where within the tropics, and is of the greatest utility: strictly speaking, it is a gigantic grass with a ligneous stem. It often rises to the height of 40 or 50 feet, and sometimes to even double those heights. Like most plants long and extensively cultivated, it diverges into many varieties. Some of these are dwarfish, while others, instead of being hollow canes, are solid. The bamboo is of rapid growth, and in four or five years is fit for many uses, but does not bear fruit or grain till it be 25 years old, after which it perishes. The grain makes tolerable bread. The young, but gigantic shoots, as they spring from the earth, make a tender and good esculent vegetable. The mature bamboo is employed in an immense variety of ways, in the construction of houses, bridges, boats, agricultural implements, &c. Some varieties grow to such a size as to be, in the largest part, near two feet in circumference, and single knees of these are used as pails or buckets. The Chinese are believed to fabricate their cheap and useful paper of macerated bamboo. The canes used in Europe as walking sticks are not bamboos, but rattans-a totally distinct class of plants. Bamboos are never used for that purpose.-(Private information.)

BANDANAS, silk handkerchiefs, generally red spotted with white. They were formerly inanufactured only in the East Indies; but they are now manufactured of a very good quality at Glasgow and other places.

BANK.-BANKING. Banks are establishments intended to serve for the safe custody of money; to facilitate its payment by one individual to another; and, sometimes, for the accommodation of the public with loans.

Banks are commonly divided into two great classes; banks of deposit, and banks of circulation. This division is not, however, a very distinct one; for there is no bank of deposit that is not, at the same time, a bank of circulation, and few or no banks of circulation that are not also banks of deposit. But the term banks of deposit is meant to designate those which keep the money of individuals and circulate it only; while the term banks of circulation is applied to those which do not thus confine their circulation, but issue notes of their own payable on demand. The Bank of England is the principal bank of circulation in the empire; but it, as well as the private banks of England and Scotland that issue notes, is also a bank of deposit. The private banking_establishments in London do not issue notes, and there are many similar establishments in Lancashire, and other parts of the country.

(1.) Utility of Banks. Private Banking Companies of London.-The establishment of banks has contributed, in no ordinary degree, to give security and facility to all sorts of commercial transactions. They afford safe and convenient places of deposit for the money that would otherwise have to be kept, at a considerable risk, in private houses. They also prevent, in a great measure, the necessity of carrying money from place to place to make payments, and enable them to be made in the most convenient and least expensive manner. A merchant or tradesman in London, for example, who employs a banker, keeps but very little money in his own hands, making all his considerable payments by drafts or checks on his banker; and he also sends the various checks, bills, or drafts payable to himself in London, to his bankers before they become due. By this means he saves the trouble and inconvenience of counting sums of money, and avoids the losses he would otherwise be liable to, and would no doubt occasionally incur, from receiving coins or notes not genuine. Perhaps, however, the great advantage derived by the merchant or tradesman from the employment of a banker, consists in its relieving him from all trouble with respect to the presentation for payment of due bills and drafts. The moment these are transferred to the banker, they are at his risk. And if he either neglect to present them when due, or to have them properly noted in the event of their not being paid, he has to answer for the consequences.

"This circumstance alone must cause an immense saving of expense to a mercantile house in the course of a year. Let us suppose that a merchant has only two bills due each day. These bills may be payable in distant parts of the town, so that it may take a clerk half a day to present them; and in large mercantile establishments it would take up the whole time of one or two clerks to present the due bills and the drafts. The salary of these clerks is, therefore, saved by keeping an account at a banker's: besides the saving of expense, it is also reasonable to suppose that losses upon bills would sometimes occur from mistakes, or oversights, from miscalculation as to the time the bill would become due-from errors in marking it up-from forgetfulness to present it, or from presenting it at the wrong place. In these cases the indorsers and drawees are exonerated; and if the acceptor do not pay the bill, the amount is lost. In a banking house such mistakes occur sometimes, though more rarely; but when they do occur, the loss falls upon the banker, and not upon his customer." -(Gilbart's Practical Observations on Banking.)

It is on other grounds particularly desirable for a merchant or tradesman to have an account with a banking house. He can refer to his bankers as vouchers for his respectability and in the event of his wishing to acquire any information with respect to the circumstances, or credit, of any one with whom he is not acquainted, his bankers will render him all the assistance in their power. In this respect they have great facilities, it being the common practice amongst the bankers in London, and most other trading towns, to communicate information to each other as to the credit and solvency of their customers.

To provide for the public security, the statute 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 29. 49. "for the punishment of embezzlement committed by agents intrusted with property," enacts, "That if any money, or security for the payment of money, shall be intrusted to any banker, merchant, broker, attorney, or other agent, with any direction in writing to apply such money, or any part thereof, or the proceeds, or any part of the proceeds of such security, for any purpose specified in such direction, and he shall, in vio

lation of good faith, and contrary to the purpose so specified, in any wise convert to his own use or benefit such money, security, or proceeds, or any part thereof respectively, every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond seas, for any term not exceeding fourteen years, nor less than seven years, or to suffer such punishment by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as the court shall award; and if any chattel or valuable security, or any power of attorney for the sale or transfer of any share or interest in any public stock or fund, whether of this kingdom, or of Great Britain, or of Ireland, or of any foreign state, or in any fund of any body corporate, company or society, shall be intrusted to any banker, merchant, broker, attorney, or other agent, for safe custody, or for any special purpose, without any authority to sell, negotiate, transfer, or pledge, and he shall, in violation of good faith, and contrary to the object or purpose which such chattel or security, or power of attorney, shall have been intrusted to him, sell, negotiate, transfer, pledge, or in any manner convert to his own use or benefit such chattel or security, or the proceeds of the same, or any part thereof, or the share or interest in stock or fund to which such power of attorney shall relate, or any part thereof, every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to any of the punishments which the court may award as hereinbefore last mentioned."

This act is not to affect trustees and mortgagees, nor bankers receiving money due upon securities, nor securities upon which they have a lien, claim, or demand, entitling them by law to sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of them, unless such sale, transfer, or other disposal shall extend to a greater number or part of such securities or effects than shall be requisite for satisfying such lien, claim, &c. - 50.

Nothing in this act is to prevent, impeach, or lessen any remedy at law or in equity, which any party aggrieved by any such offence night or would have had, had it not been passed. No banker, merchant, &c. shall be convicted as an offender against this act, in respect of any act done by him, if he shall at any time previously to his being indicted for such offence have disclosed such act on oath, in consequence of any compulsory process of any court of law or equity, in any action bona fide instituted by any party aggrieved, or if he shall have disclosed the same in any examination or deposition before any commissioner of bankrupt.- 52.

The Bank of England, and the private banking companies of London as well as some of the English provincial banks, charge no commission on the payments made and received on account of those who deal with them. But they allow no interest on the sums deposited in their hands; and it is either stipulated or distinctly understood that a person employing a banker should, besides furnishing him with sufficient funds to pay his drafts, keep an average balance in the banker's hands, varying, of course, according to the amount of business done on his account; that is, according to the number of his checks or drafts to be paid, and the number of drafts and bills to be received for him. The bankers then calculate, as well as they can, the probable amount of cash that it will be necessary for them to keep in their coffers to meet the ordinary demands of their customers, and employ the balance in discounting mercantile bills, in the purchase of government securities, or in some other sort of profitable adventure; so that their profits result, in the case of their not issuing notes, from the difference between the various expenses attendant on the management of their establishments, and the profits derived from such part of the sums lodged in their hands as they can venture to employ in an advantageous way.

The directors of the Bank of England do not allow any individual to overdraw his account, They answer drafts to the full extent of the funds deposited in their hands; but they will not pay a draft if it exceed their amount. Private bankers are not generally so scrupulous; most of them allow respectable individuals, in whom they have confidence, to overdraw their accounts; those who do so paying interest at the rate of 5 per cent, or whatever sums they overdraw. The possession of this power of overdrawing is often a great convenience to merchants, while it is rarely productive of loss to the banker. The money which is overdrawn is usually replaced within a short period; sometimes, indeed, in the course of a day or two. The directors of the Bank of England decline granting this facility from a disinclination on their part to come into competition in a matter of this sort with private bankers, who transact this kind of business better, probably, than it could be done by a great establishment like the Bank.

The facility which banks afford to the public in the negotiation of bills of exchange, or in the making of payment at distant places, is very great. Many of the banking companies established in different districts have a direct intercourse with each other, and they have all correspondents in London. Hence an individual residing in any part of the country, who may wish to make a payment in any other part, however distant, may effect his object by applying to the bank nearest to him. Thus, suppose A. of Penzance has a payment to make to B. of Inverness: to send the money by post would be hazardous; and if there were fractional parts of a pound in the sum, it would hardly be practicable to make use of the post: how then will A. manage? He will pay the sum to a banker in Penzance, and his debtor in Inverness will receive it from a banker there. The transaction is extremely simple: the Penzance banker orders his correspondent in London to pay to the correspondent of the Inverness banker the sum in question on account of B.; and the Inverness banker, being advised in course of post of what has been done, pays B. A small commission charged by the Penzance banker, and the postage, constitute the whole expense. There is no risk whatever, and the whole affair is transacted in the most commodious and cheapest

manner.

By far the largest proportion both of the inland bills in circulation in the country, and also of the foreign bills drawn upon Great Britain, are made payable in London, the grand focus

to which all the pecuniary transactions of the empire are ultimately brought to be adjusted. And in order still further to economise the use of money, the principal bankers of the metropolis are in the habit of sending a clerk each day to the clearing house in Lombard-street, who carries with him the various bills in the possession of his house that are drawn upon other bankers; and having exchanged them for the bills in possession of those others that are drawn upon his constituents, the balance on the one side or the other is paid in cash or Bank of England notes. By this contrivance the bankers of London are enabled to settle transactions to the extent of several millions a day, by the employment of not more, at an average, than from 200,000l. to 300,000l. of cash or Bank notes. (See CLEARING HOUSE.) In consequence of these and other facilities afforded by the intervention of bankers for the settlement of pecuniary transactions, the money required to conduct the business of an extensive country is reduced to a trifle only, compared with what it would otherwise be. It is not, indeed, possible to form any very accurate estimate of the total saving that is thus effected; but, supposing that 50 or 60 millions of gold and silver and bank notes are at present required, notwithstanding all the devices that have been resorted to for economising money, for the circulation of Great Britain, it may, one should think, be fairly concluded, that 200 millions would, at the very least, have been required to transact an equal extent of business but for those devices. If this statement be nearly accurate, and there are good grounds for thinking that it is rather under than over rated, it strikingly exhibits the vast importance of banking in a public point of view. By its means 50 or 60 millions are rendered capable of performing the same functions, and in an infinitely more commodious manner, that would otherwise have required four times that sum; and supposing that 20 or 30 millions are employed by the bankers as a capital in their establishments, no less than 120 or 130 millions will be altogether disengaged, or cease to be employed as an instrument of circulation, and made available for employment in agriculture, manufactures, and com

merce.

(2.) Substitution of Bank Notes for Coins. Means by which the value of Bank Notes may be sustained.-Not only, however, does the formation of banking establishments enable the business of a country to be conducted with a far less amount of money, but it also enables a large portion of that less amount to be fabricated of the least valuable materials, or of paper instead of gold. It would, however, alike exceed the limits and be inconsistent with the objects of this article, to enter into lengthened details with respect to the mode in which this substitution originally took place. It is sufficient to observe, that it naturally grew out of the progress of society. When governments became sufficiently powerful and intelligent to enforce the observance of contracts, individuals possessed of written promises from others that they would pay certain sums at specified periods, began to assign them to those to whom⚫ they were indebted; and when those by whom such obligations are subscribed are persons of whose solvency no doubt can be entertained, they are readily accepted in payment of the debts due by one individual to another. But when the circulation of obligations or bills in this way has continued for a while, individuals begin to perceive that they may derive a profit by issuing them in such a form as to fit them for being readily used as a substitute for money in the ordinary transactions of life. Hence the origin of bank notes. An individual in whose wealth and discretion the public have confidence being applied to for a loan, say of 5,000, grants the applicant his bill or note payable on demand for that sum. Now, as this note passes, in consequence of the confidence placed in the issuer, currently from hand to hand as cash, it is quite as useful to the borrower as if he had obtained an equivalent amount of gold; and supposing that the rate of interest is 5 per cent., it will yield, so long as it continues to circulate, a revenue of 250%. a year to the issuer. A banker who issues notes, coins as it were his credit. He derives the same revenue from the loan of his written promise to pay a certain sum, that he would derive from the loan of the sum itself; and while he thus increases his own income, he at the same time contributes to increase the wealth of the society. Besides being incomparably cheaper, bank notes are also incomparably more commodious than a metal currency. A bank note for 1,000/. or 100,000l. may be carried about with as much facility as a single sovereign. It is of importance, too, to observe, that its loss or destruction, whether by fire, shipwreck, or otherwise, would be of no greater importance in a public point of view, than the loss or destruction of as much paper. No doubt it might be a serious calamity to the holder; but whatever the extent it injured him, it would proportionally benefit the issuer, whereas the loss of coin is an injury to the holder without being of service to any one else; it is, in fact, so much abstracted from the wealth of the community.

Promissory notes issued by private individuals or associations circulate only because those who accept them have full confidence in the credit and solvency of the issuers, or because they feel assured that they will be paid when they become due. If any circumstances transpired to excite suspicions as to their credit, it would be impossible for them to circulate any additional notes, and those that they had issued would be immediately returned for payır ent Such, however, is not the case with paper money properly so called, or with notes that are declared legal tender. It is not necessary, in order to sustain the value of such notes, that