There are others now in the trade who have borrowed quite as much.
As is usually the case, this kind of business has grown up only gradually.

In the year 1810 there was no such business precisely answering to what we now call bill-broking in London.

Mr.
Richardson, the principal 'bill-broker' of the time, as the term was then understood, thus described his business to the 'Bullion Committee:' 'What is the nature of the agency for country banks ?--It is twofold: in the first place to procure money for country bankers on bills when they have occasion to borrow on discount, which is not often the case; and in the next place, to lend the money for the country bankers on bills on discount.

The sums of money which I lend for country bankers on discount are fifty times more than the sums borrowed for country bankers.
'Do you send London bills into the country for discount ?--Yes.
'Do you receive bills from the country upon London in return, at a date, to be discounted ?--Yes, to a very considerable amount, from particular parts of the country.
'Are not both sets of bills by this means under discount ?--No, the bills received from one part of the country are sent down to another part for discount.
'And they are not discounted in London ?--No.

In some parts of the country there is but little circulation of bills drawn upon London, as in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, &c.; but there is there a considerable circulation in country bank-notes, principally optional notes.