PREFACE. THIS small volume consists of a series of notes on the growth and development of banking in this country. The author has endeavoured to show how the deposit of money in a bank has developed into a complex system of finance, and also how capital, wielding an immense power in the present day, is largely under the management and control of our great banking institutions. The study of banking is of great importance when we consider how dependent the commercial world is upon the existence of a perfectly sound system. To understand the why and wherefore of credit, which forms the basis of banking, is an essential study for those who have adopted it as their profession. As to the sequence of the work it has been thought desirable, in the first place, to give a short sketch of early banking in this country, and then as an outcome of the expansion of trade to show its connection with commerce. In the early history of banking the subject of the currency was the most prominent feature, and therefore it has been treated separately. The Bank of England occupies such an important position, that an account of the rise and progress of that institution is given. The subsequent chapters consist of a series of notes on the history of English, Scotch, and Irish Banks. |