Article Eighth. On Exchange of Money

616. Notion and division. Exchange of money is a contract by which money is exchanged for money.

a. He who exchanges money is called the money-changer; but he who seeks that it be exchanged in his favor is named the customer. A money-changer who by exchanging monies exercises trade is called a banker, money-dealer, money-changer, or trapezite.

b. Ownership of money handed over by common law is transferred to the customer already by the handing over of the money, before the latter has returned the money.

c. It differs from mutuum, both because mutuum can be made not only in money but also in other things, and especially because it belongs to the nature of mutuum that a delay of time intervene between the handing over of the thing and its returning; but exchange of money of itself requires that for money handed over another money be returned at once, and only per accidens does some time intervene between the handing over and its returning.

Division. Exchange of money is divided in diverse ways: a. Into manual or small exchange, if present money is exchanged with other present money in the same place and at the same time, for example, gold for silver, smaller money for larger, paper for coin; and transfer exchange, if present money is exchanged with absent money, namely to be received in another place or at another time.

b. Transfer exchange is local when present money is given for money to be received in another place, which is customarily done through bills of exchange, as if Titius here gives money to a money-changer, but the money-changer gives letters so that Titius or another in his name may receive money elsewhere within a very brief time; and it is temporal when present money is given for money to be received after a notable time in the same place.

It is clear that exchange of money can be mixed, that is, local and at the same time temporal, as if someone gives present money in this place so that after some time he may receive other money of the same value in another place.

617. In order that exchange of money be just, it is required:

a. That money of the same value be handed over.

Yet various causes exist on account of which future money is not worth as much as present money; therefore the money-changer justly requires more than he himself hands over to the customer, especially where there is question of temporal exchange.

b. That the payment which is required be equivalent to the service furnished by the exchange.

The common estimation of this service determines the just payment, which can be greater the greater expenses are required so that the money-changer may habitually satisfy customers.

Note. Besides, for avoiding injustice in exchanges of money and bills of exchange scarcely anything else is required except that the statutes of law and the usage of upright money-changers be observed.