In regard to the rapidity of Germany's economic development, Riesser, the author of the book on the great German banks, states: 'The progress of the preceding period, which had not been exactly slow, stood in about the same ratio to the rapidity with which the whole of Germany's national economy and with it German banking progressed during this period, as the mail coach of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation stood to the speed of the present day automobile.