CH. 3
THE ANALYSIS OF BANK-MONEY
35
wages on Saturday and pay them away again the sameday or shortly afterwards. But, whether long or short,some interval there generally is between an individual’sreceipts and his expenditure. Moreover, he cannotalways foresee the precise date of either. He must,therefore, hold a stock of money, or a ready commandover it in the form of a bank-deposit, both to bridgethe intervals of time between receipts and expenditureand to provide against contingencies. Deposits of thiskind, replenished by individuals out of their personalincomes and employed by them to meet their personalexpenditure and their personal savings, we shall callIncome-deposits. Cash in the hands of workers andothers, who have no bank accounts, are, of course, tobe included in the same category.
In the same way a business man, a manufactureror a speculator, is unable, in general, to arrange hisreceipts and his outgoings so as to be simultaneous.Sometimes by “ clearings “ settlements ”, etc., out-side the monetary system—as, for example, the StockExchange Fortnightly Settlements—he is able to offset,in part at least, the one against another. But, ingeneral, the match is not perfect, and a proportion ofbusiness transactions, varying according to the natureof the business, will lead to the payee finding himselfin the possession of temporary balances of cash orbank-deposits. Further, as in the case of personalexpenditure, so also in the case of business expenditure,the precise date at which obligations will fall duecannot always be foreseen, so that it is convenient tokeep a margin against contingencies. Such depositsas these, held for business purposes, we shall callBusiness-deposits.
The Income-deposits and the Business-deposits to-gether make up what we shall call the Cash-deposits}