Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/348

Rh 328 SAVINGS BANKS Tear Percent- Per Head ending Nov. 80. Population. Number of Depositors. age of Popula- tion. Amount of Deposits. of Population.

S. d. 1821 20,893,584 Not known 4,740,188 046 1831 24,028,584 429,400 2 14,698,635 12 3 1841 26,730,929 841,204 3 24,536,971 18 4 1851 27,390,629 1,161,838 4 30,445,568 1 2 3 1861 28,927,485 1,609,102 6 41,542,219 189 From this date the progress of the post office savings banks has also to be brought into account, statistics of which have already been given under POST OFFICE : Year. Population. Number of Depositors. Percent- age of Popula- tion. Trustee Savings Banks. Post Office Savings Banks. Total. 1871 1881 1884 31,845,379 35,241,482 1,404,078 1,532,486 1,582,474 1,303,492 2,607,612 3,333,675 2,707,570 4,140,098 4,916,149 8i 12 Amount of Deposits. Per Head of Popula- tion. Per De- positor. Trustee Savings Banks. Post Office Savings Banks. Total. 1871 1881 1884

38,820,458 44,137,855 45,840,887

17,025,004 36,194,495 44,773,773

55,845,462 80,332,350 90,614,660 s. d. 1 15 257

21 19 18 On the 24th April 1886 the funds in the hands of the National Debt Commissioners on account of trustee savings banks were 46,162,515, and post office savings banks 49,881,896, a total of 96,044,411. To these maybe added the cash and assets in the hands of the banks and the postmaster-general, which at the beginning of the previous year amounted to 764,804, and also the following investments in stock on account of depositors : trustee savings bank, 729,522 ; post office savings bank, 2,626,928 ; total, 3,356,450 ; making the aggregate funds belonging to depositors in savings banks more than 100,000,000. The largest savings bank in the United Kingdom is that at Glasgow, as shown by the following table of the 21 principal banks : Deposits on 20th Novem- ber 1884. Deposit Accounts Open. Number of Transactions in the Year. Glasgow

3,686,607 2,080,788 1,858,468 1,412,547 1,351,839 1,263,577 1,054,601 957,164 885,195 776,188 653,875 628,903 607,708 572,209 539,695 523,154 521,615 127,651 80,667 68,162 59,970 29,999 65,301 34,217 32,389 31,880 21,998 19,561 27,597 22,811 24,322 14,168 18,995 23,532 523,322 336,281 210,828 232,375 38,350 104,311 35,230 74,150 97,386 40,952 54,871 82,414 40,114 83,433 29,286 23,675 39,438 Liverpool Manchester Edinburgh St Martin's Place, London .... Bloomfield Street, London Exeter Sheffield Finsbury, London Newcastle-on-Tyne Preston Hull Nottingham Leeds Bristol Devonport Bloomsbury, London Banks with less capital but a large number of depositors Aberdeen 19,374,133 396,151 474,089 301,713 326 296 703,220 32.C68 22,119 20,895 18,531 2,046,416 36,380 81,753 23,773 36,141 Dundee Marylebone, London Leicester 20,872,382 797,433 2,224,463 From this table some interesting conclusions may be drawn as to the operations of savings banks in the larger towns. These 21 banks have together more than 50 per cent, of the depositors, more than 45 per cent, of the deposits, and more than 65 per cent, of the transactions of all the 411 savings banks of the United Kingdom. The progress of savings banks and the large amount that the deposits have now reached are evidence of the general fitness of the organization for its purpose. So far as regards trustee savings banks, the provisions of the Acts of 1817 are still to a great extent the same as those by which they are now regulated, though the law has been frequently amended in matters of detail, and twice (1828 and 1863) consolidated. Its main feature is the requirement that the whole of the funds should be invested with the Government through the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt. The local management of the banks has been left entirely to the trustees, who are precluded from receiving any remuneration for their services or making any profit. They are, however, required to furnish the commissioners with periodical returns of their transactions. This blending of private management with state control has had many advantages in knitting together class and class, and in many places the voluntary trustees and managers have been able to render real service to the depositors in various ways. A new savings bank requires for its establishment the con- sent of the National Debt Commissioners and the certi- ficate of the registrar of friendly societies to its rules ; but since the opening of the post office savings banks in 1861 few have been established, and many old savings banks have been closed, not being able to offer to their depositors the same advantages as the new system. The savings banks, which numbered 640 in 1861, have thus been reduced to 411, and their capital has been maintained rather by the accumulation of interest than by fresh deposits. The legislation of 1817, among other inducements to thrift, offered that of a bounty to the savings bank depositor in the shape of a rate of interest in excess of that given to the ordinary public creditor, or which is the same thing in excess of that which could be earned by the investment of the deposits in the purchase of Government stock. The interest offered in the first instance was 3d. per day, or 4, 11s. 3d. per cent, per annum ; and that rate continued to be granted until the passing of the Act of 1828 (9 Geo. IV. c. 92). That Act reduced the rate of interest allowed to the trustees of savings banks to 2Jd. per day, or 3, 16s. O^d. per annum, and prohibited them from allowing more to their depositors than 2|d. per day, or 3, 8s. 5|d. per annum, requiring them to pay the surplus, if any, into a separate fund held by the National Debt Commissioners, but bearing no interest. In 1844 the interest to trustees was further reduced to 2d. per day, or 3, 5s. per cent. , the maximum to be allowed to depositors being fixed at 3, Os. lOd. Finally, in 1880 the interest to trus- tees has been reduced to 3, and that to depositors to 2, 15s. The result of the bonus on thrift offered by the earlier statutes was a loss to the state, which ought to have been made good by an annual vote. Between 1817 and 1828 the difference between the interest credited and that earned amounted to 744,363 ; and this led to the reduction in the rate of interest effected by the Act of the latter year. The deficiency, instead of being paid off, was allowed still to accumulate, and as the price of stock rose and the deposits increased fresh deficiencies arose, so that by 1844 the deficiency, which would have been 1 millions by the mere accumulation of interest on the previous 744,363, had become 3,179,930. The reduction of interest in 1844 was about enough to make the fund self-supporting, though savings banks are always, as Mr Scratchlcy clearly shows, liable to loss from the fact that deposits are in excess when the funds are high and withdrawals when they are low ; but the past deficiency was still allowed to accumulate, and it was not till 1880 that the plan was adopted of voting the deficiency every year. Had the accumulated defi- ciency been then liquidated, there would have been no necessity for an annual vote. The bad political economy of the legislators of 1817 has left us this legacy of annual deficits. Had they provided the bounty at their own expense instead of that of their descendants, there would have been little to be said against it. Organic tion. Interest