How could banks with multiple branches work in a world without quick communication?

If a bank wanted to operate branches in multiple cities, possibly separated by large distances, how would they prevent a fraudulent customer from double-dipping on a withdrawal?

For example, if I have $200 in the bank in Town A, I could go in and withdraw it. As soon as I get it, I rent a horse (/some other form of transport) and go to Town B, where there is another branch of the same bank. If I also try to withdraw my money there, how will they know that I don't have the money in my account anymore?

Electricity has not been discovered yet, and so clearly electronic forms of communication can't be used. Is there any way for the branches to keep their records synchronized in order to prevent this kind of fraud?

One thinks perhaps of communication system like flags or other visual signals, but in this case the bank is sending rather complex information, and I think it would be difficult to encode this sort of info into a simple, visually-based communication system.

posted over 7 years ago

Carl Hyde‭

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