18 BANKING THEORIES IN UNITED STATES to their part in the distribution of credit, but it did so with em- phasis no longer upon note issue, but instead upon the clearing of checks in the utilization of that deposit currency which was becoming increasingly important. In the lengthy discussion that occurred concerning the eco- nomic influence of banking in the exercise of the functions as- cribed to it and concerning the ultimate social value of the in- stitution, we shall find that, consciously or otherwise, banks were commonly regarded in their dual aspect, already suggested: first, as the source of an important form of media of payment; secondly, as agents in the distribution of loanable funds. In fact, this conception of the functions of banking underlay all those that were explicitly advanced, and it was, perhaps, correspond- ingly more important.