making of banks to oppose the force of the sea, rivers, or the like, and secure the land from being overflowed thereby. With respect to the water which is to be kept out, this is called banking; with respect to the land, which is hereby to be defended, imbanking.

Banking is also applied to the keeping a bank, or the employment of a banker. Banking, in this sense, signifies the trading in money, or remitting it from place to place, by means of bills of exchange. This answers to what the French call faire la banque. In France, every body is allowed to bank, whether merchant or not; even foreigners are indulged in this kind of traffic. In Italy, banking does not derogate from nobility, especially in the republic states; whence it is, that most of the younger sons of great families engage in it. In reality, it was the nobility of Venice and Genoa, that, for a long time, were the chief bankers in the other countries of Europe.