Remarkabl e Progress
Ix view of the fact that the National Provincial Bank celebrates its centenary in the coming year, and because the details of its origin and progress apply to the progress of joint stock banking generally, I have devoted consider- able space to that particular institution. The progress achieved by the other great banks of the country has, however, been equally striking, and I suggest that a study of this banking progress and what it achieved for the country constitutes in itself an effective reply to some of the foolish attacks which are being made in some quarters upon our banking system, and to which attention is devoted in an article which appears on a later page in the current number of the Spectator. As regards purely Metropolitan banking, pride of place, as a pioneer amongst the joint stock banks, must be given to the old Westminster Bank established in 1834 ; its contemporary which it subsequently absorbed, the London and County Banking Company, was established in 1836. The Bank started its career at 38 Throgmorton Street with a single branch office at Waterloo Place, and the first annual report contained some interesting allusions to the opposition with which the directors had met in the formation of the bank. This same report showed a small profit for the year of about £3,500, while the deposits totalled about £180,000 ; this, after paying preliminary expenses amounting to £10,636. To-day this great Bank which in course of time has swallowed up such mammoth institutions as the London and County, Parrs, and Stuckeys, shows a total of deposits of over £270,000,000 with assets of over £309,000,000 and with branches extending almost throughout the kingdom.
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