銀行是以存款、貸款、電匯、儲蓄等業(yè)務(wù)，承擔(dān)信用中介的金融機(jī)構(gòu)。接下來小編為大家整理了銀行及其功能，希望對你有幫助哦!

　　Interest is a reward which is paid by the borrower to the lender for a loan. It always coexists with credit. Where there is Credit, there should be interest.The principal and primary function of banks is to serve as middlemen in the making of payments. In doing so they transform inactive money capital into active, that is, into capital yielding a profit; they collect all kinds of money revenues and place them at the disposal of the capitalist class.

　　As banking develops and becomes concentrated in a small number of establishments, the banks grow from modest middlemen into powerful monopolies. They have at their command almost the whole money capital of all the capitalists and small businessmen and also the larger part of the means of production and sources of raw materials in any one country or in a number of countries. This transformation of numerous modest middlemen into a handful of monopolists is one of the fundamental processes in the growth of capitalism into capitalist imperialism.

　　I have emphasized the reference to the “affiliated” banks, because it is one of the most important distinguishing features of modern capitalist concentration... Again and again the final word in the development of banking is monopoly.

　　As regards the close connection between the banks and industry, it is precisely in this sphere that the new role of the banks is, perhaps, most strikingly felt. When a bank discounts a bill for a firm, opens a current account for it, etc., these operations, taken separately, do not in the least diminish its independence and the bank plays no other part than that of a modest middleman. But when such operations are multiplied and become an established practice, when the bank “collects” in its own hands enormous amounts of capital, when the running of a current account for a given firm enables the bank to obtain fuller and more detailed information about the economic position of its client, the result is that the industrial capitalist becomes more completely dependent on the bank.

　　At the same time a personal union, so to speak, is established between the banks and the biggest industrial and commercial enterprises, the merging of one with another through the acquisition of shares, through the appointment of bank directors to the Supervisory Boards (or Boards of Directors) of industrial and commercial enterprises, and vice versa.

　　銀行最基本、最主要的功能是在支付過程中充當(dāng)中介。在此過程中，銀行將閑置的錢轉(zhuǎn)化為流通的錢，也就是說，轉(zhuǎn)化為產(chǎn)生利潤的資本;它們將各種貨幣收入集中起來，再投放給資本家，由他們支配。

　　隨著銀行的發(fā)展并集中于少數(shù)幾家機(jī)構(gòu)，銀行逐步從單純的中介成長為強(qiáng)大的壟斷者。銀行幾乎控制著一國乃至數(shù)國大小資本家和商家的全部貨幣資本和大部分生產(chǎn)資料及原料來源。從大批普普通通的中介轉(zhuǎn)化為少數(shù)壟斷者的過程是資本主義向資本帝國主義發(fā)展的一個重要步驟。

　　我之所以著重提到“附屬”銀行，是因為這是現(xiàn)代資本集中的最重要、最顯著的特征之一。實踐反復(fù)證明，銀行業(yè)發(fā)展的必然結(jié)果是壟斷。

　　就銀行和工業(yè)的密切關(guān)系而言，銀行新功能的最突出體現(xiàn)就在于此。當(dāng)銀行為企業(yè)辦理票據(jù)貼現(xiàn)，開立活期賬戶等業(yè)務(wù)時，這些單獨(dú)辦理的業(yè)務(wù)活動，絲毫不降低它的獨(dú)立性，銀行只是起著單純的經(jīng)紀(jì)人作用。但是，當(dāng)這類業(yè)務(wù)活動成倍增加，并成為固定的業(yè)務(wù);當(dāng)銀行把大量的資本“收集”在自己的手中;當(dāng)經(jīng)營某公司的活期存款使得銀行對該公司的經(jīng)濟(jì)情況有了更全面、更詳細(xì)的了解，其結(jié)果是工業(yè)資本家更加依賴于銀行。

　　與此同時，在銀行和大型工商企業(yè)之間，一種可喻之為“私人”的關(guān)系已建立起來了，即通過相互持有股份;通過向?qū)Ψ奖O(jiān)事會(或董事會)委派董事而形成相互之間的合并。