* * * * *
[1] Post Office Savings Bank.
[2] Advice with reference to an order for repayment.
[3] Payable to....
[4] In the Post Office designated on the back.
[5] Paid.
[6] To be paid without Savings Book.
[7] Post Office Savings Bank.
[8] Order for repayment.
[9] Valid during two months.
[10] The Post Office.
[11] Pay on this order to....
[12] The sum of....
[13] Paid.
[14] In acknowledgement of the receipt of the above sum.
[15] Date.]
The importance of these payments is not considerable as is seen by the
following figures:
1884 99,942 florins.
1885 374,697 "
1886 445,338 "
1887 844,978 "
1888 887,037 "
1889 955,019 "
1890 1,274,607 "
1891 1,091,839 "
1892 1,149,872 "
1893 1,685,791 "
1894 1,697,270 "
1895 1,865,919 "
_Fifthly._
The Postal Savings Bank pays in the same way on account of the
adherents of the cheque and clearing service, bills, signed bonds,
accounts admitted and approved. Bills of exchange are settled at the
Postal Office at Vienna. In order to realize their payment, the holder
of an account draws a cheque for the amount of the bill and writes on
the back: _for payment of the bill herein refered to_. He indicates the
date of its falling due and puts his signature below these remarks.
This cheque is sent to the Postal Office at Vienna before the bill
falls due. It can be addressed also to the possessor of the bill, who
will present it at the date it is due to the Postal pay Office with
at the same time his claim. If the possessor of the bill is himself
affiliated to the cheque service he can have the bill put to the credit
of his account.
The degree of importance of this branch is indicated by the following
figures:
1885 406,451 florins
1886 1,522,404 "
1887 1,877,602 "
1888 3,053,419 "
1889 2,823,845 "
1890 3,436,795 "
1891 4,564,179 "
1892 6,183,954 "
1893 7,343,438 "
1894 7,917,723 "
1895 8,818,997 "
From this it will be seen that during the last five years the movement
has so accelerated that the amount has in the interval nearly doubled.
_Sixthly._
Here the system presents to us its highest degree of interest: the
possessors of account books, adherents of the clearing service, can
discharge their debts one to the other by the transfer of accounts. It
is sufficient to write at the back of the cheque: to be carried to the
credit of account N^o ..., with the name of the holder of the account
and his address. In this case the amount of the cheque is placed to the
debit of the person who issued it and to the credit of the person in
whose favour it is drawn.
The two holders of accounts at the Savings Bank are immediately
informed of this transfer by the sending of the extract of their
accounts.
The cheques which have this destination are properly speaking clearing
cheques not intended to be paid in species; but it may happen that a
cheque destined for a member, adherent to the clearing service has in
an exceptional case to be paid in money; the person who has issued it
will in that case have to make a note at the back of the document:
_Outside the clearing circulation_.
The statistics show the growing importance of _clearing cheques_.
1884 1,620,102 florins
1885 40,271,880 "
1886 102,185,786 "
1887 150,479,085 "
1888 177,846,958 "
1889 216,683,156 "
1890 264,262,296 "
1891 310,141,924 "
1892 360,498,168 "
1893 414,342,892 "
1894 445,378,270 "
1895 482,031,950 "
It will be seen that in the last ten years, the amount has nearly
quintupled. The pace of the movement is here more rapid than in cheques
payable in cash.
The proportional relations of all the modes of disposing of the credit
of the adherents of the cheques and _clearing_ service show that in
1895 on a total of liquidations or payments of 1,484,251,488 florins,
32% were occasioned by transfers of accounts, 32% by cheques to
bearer (_cassa-checks_), 35% by cheques to appointed persons, and the
remainder by the other modes indicated.
The progress of the figures taken all round is as follows:
1883 213,239 florins
1884 41,234,429 "
1885 252,260,083 "
1886 466,807,297 "
1887 611,693,909 "
1888 643,718,457 "
1889 750,898,892 "
1890 877,975,829 "
1891 998,376,144 "
1892 1,116,258,031 "
1893 1,249,482,460 "
1894 1,363,744,935 "
1895 1,484,251,448 "
All this formidable account keeping is done strictly day by day.
Three hundred employés are working at it constantly. Special employés
who have acquired an extraordinary ability, verify the signatures
on each occasion. The type signatures are classed alphabetically.
Current-accounts are drawn up on loose sheets and not in books: this
is considered a real progress for books are soon in tatters. On each
occasion an extract of the account is sent to the party interested:
every transfer entails the sending extracts to both parties interested.
Envelopes with their names and addresses printed are classified in
pigeon holes so as to be easily found. I join to this explanation some
extracts from typical accounts. One shows a banking made by a post
office, the other a transfer made between adherents to the _clearing_
system. (Fig. V.)
The centralisation of all this vast account-keeping at the Central
Office of the Savings Bank at Vienna is the basis of the system, the
pledge of the regularity of the service and of the certainty of the
control. Notwithstanding the inevitable complexity of operations and
accounts, this complexity does not entail any really prejudicial
delays[L]. The increasing figure of the operations is a proof of the
growing favour of the public and is a testimony to the usefulness of
the institution beyond all argument. The coefficient of error has been
very slight and fraud has not been as yet able to succeed in causing
trouble in the working of this admirable machinery of circulation.
The Central Office is put every day in relation with 4,000 post
offices, which transmit to it packets containing the _empfang erlag
schein_, the claims and all the documents which have been brought
them. The unfastening of this immense correspondence is simplified
by machinery. All these documents are enclosed in large envelopes of
uniform dimensions so that they can be opened by packets, in cutting
off their edges by means of large knives working mechanically. (Fig.
VI.)
The Postal Office of Vienna prepares annually the list of all the
possessors of cheque books who are adherents to the clearing service;
this list is printed and can be obtained by subscribers with the
supplements published at irregular intervals for one florin a year.
[Illustration: FIGURE V.
[1]Nummer des Checkbüchels: [2]_K. K. Postsparcassen-Amt._
=805503=
[3]Conto-Auszug
[4]=N^o 75 vom 14/9 1896.=
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
|[5]_Nr. des Erlagscheines oder Checks_
| |[6]_Einlagestelle bezw. Zahlstelle_
| | |[7]_Name des Einzahlers bezw. Empfängers_
| | | |[8]_Einlagen und Gutschriften_
| | | | |[9]_Rückzahlungen_
| | | | | |[10]_Lastschriften im_
| | | | | |_Clearingverkehr_
| | | | | | |[11]_Guthaben_
| | | | | | | |[12]_C. C.[A]_
| | | | | | | |_Folio_
| | | | | | | | |[13]_Fact.[A]_
| | | | | | | | |_Datum_
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | | |fl.|kr.|fl.|kr.|fl.|kr.|fl. |kr.| | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | |[14] | | | | | | | 524| 27| | |
| | |Uebertrag| | | | | | | | | | |
| | |vom 13/9.| | | | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| 75 |Wein | | 20| 25| | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| 41 |Inglan | | | | | | 76| 08| 468| 44| | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
| | |[15] | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |Fürtrag | | | | | | | | | | |
+----+-------+---------+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+----+----+
[A] _Colonne zur eventuellen Benützung der Conto-Inhaber._