The lender considers that the bill-broker--no matter whether an individual, a company, or a firm--has considerable wealth, and he takes the 'bills,' relying that the broker would not venture that wealth by guaranteeing them unless he thought them good.

The lender thinks, too, that the bill-broker being daily conversant with bills and bills only, knows probably all about bills: he lends partly in reliance on the wealth of the broker and partly in reliance on his skill.

He does not exercise much judgment of his own on the bills deposited with him: he often does not watch them very closely.
Probably not one-thousandth part of the creditors on security of Overend, Gurney and Co., had ever expected to have to rely on that security, or had ever given much real attention to it.

Sometimes, indeed, the confidence in the bill-brokers goes farther.

A considerable number of persons lend to them, not only without much looking at the security but even without taking any security.