War-time financial problems

AMALGAMATION'S PROGRESS

79

MOVEMENT OF ENGLISH JOINT-STOCK BANK DEPOSITS, ETC.,

SINCE l886.

i

December 3»st,
No, of Banks,
Number of Branches.
Capital Paid up.
Deposit and Current Accounts,
Total Liabilities,

1885
log
^.547
£38,468,000
^99,195,000
£376,808,000

1891
106
2*245
43,406,000
391,842,000
486,632,000

1896
94
3.051
45,203,000
495.233,°°°
599,5*8,ooo

1901
74
3,935
46,631,000
584,841,000
698,150,000

1906
55
4,840
48,122,000
647,889,000
782,353,000

1911
44
5.417
47,265,000
748,641,000
885,069,000

1916
35
5,993
48,237,000
1,154,877,000
1,316,220,000

This table is taken from the annual banking
numbers of the Economist. It will be noticed that
in 1886 there were in England 109 joint-stock banks
with 1547 offices, whose accounts were tabulated
in the Economist's annual review. Their total paid-
up capital was 38! millions, their deposit and
current accounts were just tinder 300 millions, and
their total liabilities were 377 millions. In the
course of thirty years the 109 banks had shrunk by
the process of amalgamation and absorption to
thirty-five, that is to say, they had been divided
by three ; the number of their offices, however, had
been multiplied by nearly four, while their deposit
accounts had grown from 300 millions to 1155, and
their total liabilities from 377 to 1316 millions. By
the amalgamations announced at the end of 1917,
and that of the County of Westminster with Parr's
announced on February ist, the number of joint
stock banks will be reduced to 32. The picture
would be still more striking if the figures of the