These were assignment, endorsement, and discounting of bills of exchange.

In the last century its major function was the discounting of bills of exchange which financed the increasing volume of international trade.

In the 1830s and 1840s, Midland occupied an important niche in Birmingham business, particularly in the discounting of bills of exchange for its customers.

The well developed, highly liquid and sophisticated money market in London today has, as its origins, the discounting of bills by the discount houses in the early nineteenth century.

The commerce of Scotland, which at present is not very great, was still more inconsiderable when the two first banking companies were established, and those companies would have had but little trade had they confined their business to the discounting of bills of exchange.

By that time the information contained in the audited accounts would be so out of date that it would not reasonably be foreseen as the basis for a business judgment concerning the extension of credit to Berg or the discounting of bills.

From that time, they have continued to have an important role in the discounting of bills and as a result of this function have come to fill a pivotal role between the banks and the Bank of England in the determination of short term interest rates.

In addition Rothschild procured the cash amounts that the Community was unable to raise through the discounting of bills of exchange, including the second installment in the form of debentures with a term of ten years, a major tranche of which was handled by the Gebrüder Bethmann bank.