BARCLAYS.
Barclays Bank falls into the rank of those institutions whose early beginnings are veiled by the newer title. More, perhaps, almost than any of the other banks, Barclays is the outcome of the combination of some of the oldest private banks in the country and especially in East Anglia. Many of those banks were established in the eighteenth, and some even in the seventeenth century. The history of the bank as a joint stock company, however, dates from the amalgamation in 1896 of twenty private banks which were then transacting business in various parts of England. The first balance-sheet of the limited company, therefore, showed the position on July 1st, 1896, giving a total of'deposits of over L26,000,000, while at the time of the amalgamation there were 181 branches. To-day the deposits are over L841,000,000, while there are 2,072 branches. Moreover, under the present chairman- ship of Mr. Goodenough a feature of the later days of the Bank's history has been the entry into overseas banking through the formation of the subsidiary concern known as Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) which represents a fusion of several important banks which had been engaged in activities in our Dominions, in South Africa and elsewhere.
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