Thus a banker's business--his proper business--does not begin while he is using his own money: it commences when he begins to use the capital of others.

An insurance office in the long run needs no capital; the premiums which are received ought to exceed the claims which accrue.

In both cases, the capital is wanted to assure the public and to induce it to trust the concern.2ndly.Those companies have answered which have an exclusive privilege which they have used with judgment, or which possibly was so very profitable as to enable them to thrive with little judgment.3rdly.Those which have undertaken a business both large and simple--employing more money than most individuals or private firms have at command, and yet such that, in Adam Smith's words, "the operations are capable of being reduced to a routine or such an uniformity of method as admits of no variation." 'As a rule, the most profitable of these companies are banks.
Indeed, all the favouring conditions just mentioned concur in many banks.

An old-established bank has a "prestige," which amounts to a "privileged opportunity"; though no exclusive right is given to it by law, a peculiar power is given to it by opinion.

The business of banking ought to be simple; if it is hard it is wrong.