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Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below.
The Italian banking system became the model for those North European nations that would achieve the greatest commercial success in the coming centuries, notably the Dutch, the English, and the Swedes. It was in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm that the next decisive wave of financial or innovation occurred, as the forerunners of modern central banks made their first appearance. The seventeenth century saw the foundation of three distinctly novel institutions that, in their differen in ways, were intended to serve a public as well as a private financial function. The Amsterdam Exchange Bank, i.e. the Wisselbank, was set up in 1609 to resolve the practical problems created for merchants by the circulation of multiple currencies in the United Provinces, where there were no fewer than fourteen different mints and copious quantities of foreign coins. By allowing merchants to set up accounts denominated in a standardized currency, the Exchange Bank pioneered the system of cheques and direct debits or transfers that we take for granted today. This allowed more and more commercial transactions to take place without the need for the sums involved to materialize in actual coins. Financial historians disagree as to how far the growth of banking after the seventeenth century can be credited with the acceleration of economic growth that began in Britain in the late eighteenth 20 5 century and then spread to Western Europe, North America and Australasia. But banks played a more important role in continental European industrialization than they did in England's.
a) Where did the precursors of modern central banks make their first appearance?
b) What practical problem was the Wisselbank required to resolve in its initial days?
c) How did the Amsterdam Exchange Bank respond to the demand of the age?
d) What are the points of disagreement among the financial historians with respect to growth of banking vis-a-vis growth of economy?
e) Choose a suitable title for above composition.
a) The forerunner of modern central banks made its first appearance in England's Amsterdam, London and Stockholm.
b) Serving public and private institutions at the same time for a bank was difficult. Besides, circulation of multiple currencies and limited foreign coins made the monetary system complex. The Wisselbank allowed the merchants to establish accounts dominated in a standardized currency to resolve this problem.
c) The newly established bank initiated the system of cheques and allowed debits or transfers. Thus the Amsterdam Exchange Bank allowed more and more commercial transactions to take place without having the sums to materialize in real coins.
d) According to the financial analysts of Britain, economic growth did not accelerate with growth of Banking in England but it played a vital role for the industrialization of Europe.
e) The emergence of Banking.
