| 释义 |
Clearing House, clearing-house
An institution in London established by the bankers for the adjustment of their mutual claims for cheques and bills, by exchanging them and settling the balances. Extended to imitations of this in other places, and to institutions of a similar nature, as the railway clearing house, an office in which the mutual claims of the different railways for through tickets and freights, etc. are settled. Hence also freq. used fig.
1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. xiv. (ed. 3) 126 In London this is avoided, by making all checks paid in to bankers pass through what is technically called ‘The Clearing House’. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. I. xi. 48 The clearing house to which every City banker sends each afternoon all the checques on other bankers which he has received during the day. 1848–60Bartlett Dict. Amer., Clearing House, an establishment recently organized in the city of New York. 1849F. B. Head Stokers & Pokers xiv. (1851) 141 The London Clearing-House is enabled to trace the course of all waggons and passenger-carriages. 1861Goschen For. Exch. 37 Indirect and intermediate settlements, in which London appears as the clearing-house of the world. 1866Crump Banking i. 37 The Clearing-house..was established by the principal bankers in London in the year 1775. 1881H. H. Gibbs Double Stand. 39 France acting as a clearing-house between England and India. 1883Harper's Mag. Sept. 634/2 The Charity Organization Society is a central exchange or clearing-house for all the single relief associations. 1903Daily Chron. 10 Dec. 6/7 What is wanted is first a human clearing house, or, in other words, compulsory examination of all immigrants. 1904J. Chamberlain Speech 19 Jan. (Oxf. Dict. Quots., ed. 2), Provided that the City of London remains as it is at present, the clearing-house of the world. 1906Westm. Gaz. 17 Dec. 2/1 Washington is in one sense the clearing-house for the humanity of the entire continent. 1943J. S. Huxley TVA xvi. 131 The new Council has, among other things, become a clearing-house for regional research. 1961Oxf. Mag. 26 Jan. 163/1 The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals is now proposing to set up a central clearing-house which will handle all applications and produce a provisional answer from the candidate's universities of first and second choice by the end of March.
b. attrib. So also clearing-banker, a banker who has admission to the Clearing House; clearing-house certificate U.S., a certificate of deposit issued by a clearing-house, negotiable only between banks belonging to the clearing-house association.
1864Statutes at Large (U.S.) XIII. 109 Clearing-house certificates, representing specie or lawful money specially deposited for the purpose of any clearing house association, shall be deemed to be lawful money. 1878M. Marble in N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 163 Our bank-notes, checks, drafts, book-accounts, and clearing-house machinery. 1885Whitaker's Almanack 221 Every Bank in London and the Country is represented by Clearing Bankers, who, as agents, send through the Clearing House all drafts payable in the City and in the Country. 1948G. Crowther Outl. Money (ed. 2) ii. 63 The New York banks were driven to issue ‘Clearing House certificates’, which were, in fact, banknotes, although the law had to pretend that they were not. |