18 BANKING THEORIES IN UNITED STATES

to their part in the distribution of credit, but it did so with emphasis
 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 economic
 influence of banking in the exercise of the functions ascribed
 to it and concerning the ultimate social value of the institution,
 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, correspondingly
 more important.