In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.