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32 THE RE-MAKING .oF THE REICHSBANK
the Reichsk,assenscheine did not loom large in the
monetary world. The highest circulation rose up to
100,259,000 M. only in 1920.
This sort of paper-money was indeed eclipsed by
another sorf, the Darlehnsk,assenscheine (Loan Treasury
Bills) which during the first war-year (1914) appeared
modestly as 871,168,000 M. but by 1922 reached the
figure 238,472,581 ,000 M. In 1923 the 9,3 billion border
was crossed. The loan tre~sui'y bills were abolished in
1924.4
The Reichsbank Act 011875"
The total circulation of the four "privileged" Note­
Banks ranged in pre-war years generally, as we have seen
above, about 150.200 million Marks. Their economic
importance in the financial world of Germany has ever
been very small. Moreover, the law of 1875 enjoins that
these notes may be used as money only when payments
are to be made ,to the Reichsbank." According to the Act
of 1924 also they are not "legal tender." No provincial
legislation (Bavarian, Saxon, etc.)' is authorized to raise
them to this status. Naturally, therefore, their field of
operations'is hardly worth one's notice in an examination
of. the currency system of the German Empire. For all
practical purposes the Reichsballk was the, onl}' Note.
"Bank of Imperial Germany. It has continued to be so
under the federated Gennan Republic. Its "position as
such has indeed been strengthened by the provisions of
the Act of 1924. 8
The Reichsbank is an Ak,tiengesellschaft, I.e., a
4 Die ReichsbanJc ,1901.1925.p. 140, Tabelle 5.