EXCEPT in its public aspects, the subject of finance has received little attention at the hands of writers. The necessity for funds with which to carry on King William's war with France gave rise to the Bank of England and, with this, to modern funding methods. Nearly all of the great banks and banking systems of the past have grown out of public rather than private needs. So constantly has attention been drawn to funding measures of Government, that the words "finance" and "funds" have come to be associated almost exclusively with public affairs. The fast increasing funds in private institutions, the magnitude of modern industrial and commercial undertakings, the large funding operations wholly private in their character that have gone along with private enterprise during the last decade, have awakened an interest in private finance far exceeding that which attaches to public revenues and expenditures. Recognizing the need for the collection and coordination of data in this branch of the subject, effort has been directed toward the development of a literature such as may bring the facts of financial life within the reach of the reading public. This larger work was undertaken some years ago in cooperation with Dr. Edward S. Meade, of the University of Pennsylvania. The present essay is the first of a series. Under the present title, Funds and Their Uses, the aim of the author has been to give a wide survey of the field of finance. Looking upon the subject of private finance as one which has to do with the getting and the spending of funds for private enterprise, the materials of this book have been grouped around three central ideas, viz. (1) What are Funds? (2) How Funds are Obtained.. (3) The Institutions and Agencies Employed in Funding Operations. The more technical fields of financiering-the several departments of financial operation are reserved for subsequent essays. In Part I the various forms of money and credit used as funds, and the means of transfer of credit funds, are discussed. An understanding of the nature of funds is regarded as fundamental. Part II, which has for its subject "How Funds are Obtained," divides modern funding methods into two classes, namely, (1) those of the industrially and socially dependent, and (2) those of the industrially and socially independent-i. e., those who depend on active participation in business. The only method by which the former may obtain funds is that of gift and inheritance, which is the title of Chapter IV; in this the consideration is one of personal attachment and direct appeal. The funding method of the second class, those actively cooperating in industrial life, is that of exchange. The consideration for exchange is one of value. In business there is only one way of obtaining funds-that is, to have something to sell, something for which those having funds are willing to exchange them. To this method several chapters are given. Those without capital or other property must resort to sales of labor. The limitations of the laborer, the advantages of education and industrial training, savings as a means of obtaining industrial capital, are some of the important considerations for this class. Those possessed of property or established business may avail themselves of methods which are made the subject of the three concluding chapters of Part II. For illustration of instruments and methods, those actively employed in the market-place have been used. In their reproduction, however, it has been necessary to reduce all exhibits to typepage dimensions. Engravings of checks, notes, scrip, drafts, etc., are about one-fourth of the size of the originals from which they are made. Stocks, bonds, and the larger security documents are in some instances reduced to oneeighth of their original size. In Part III a chapter has been given to each of the leading financial institutions. The labor of collecting the data and illustrations in many cases must have proved fruitless had it not been for the friendly assistance of those in control of financial concerns, and those in possession of instruments acquired by years of contact with financial life. In this relation I am especially indebted to Mr. Charles C. Harrison, Jr., of the banking and broking firm of McMichael & Co.; Mr. John P. Dawson, of the banking house of Brown Brothers; Mr. L. G. Fouse, President of the Fidelity Mutual Life; Dr. Stewart Culin, Curator of the Free Museum of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania; Mr. Herbert G. Stockwell, and Mr. H. A. Chambers. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. F. A. C. |