Billbrokers

Bill-brokers, persons who sell and buy bills of exchange (q.v.) and promissory notes. The business involves special knowledge of the rates of exchange, the state of the money market, and the prospects of various trades, as well as of the personal credit of the traders. Bill-brokers commonly confine their attention to the bills of some special trade, and very frequently also act as discount brokers, i.e. cash the bills offered to them, and hold them till maturity, deducting of course a commission for risk as well as the ordinary rate of discount. Here their special knowledge of personal credit enables them to compete with the banks. As some of the bills offered are accommodation bills (q.v.), both classes really at times serve as money-lenders.