Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/348

332 and 1828, both inclusive, the sum of 13,089,419. (4 Geo. IV. c. 22.) This annuity has, in due course of time, expired. Formerly the business transacted at the bank was so much encumbered with forms and conditions, that the generality of merchants and ordinary people rarely thought of employing it to keep their money or make their pay ments. But in this respect an entire change has been effected. Cheques, the minimum amount of which was formerly 10, may now be drawn of any amount, great or small ; and all sorts of banking business is conducted with facility and despatch, and, it may be added, with perfect security. The bank opens banking accounts, or, as they are called, &quot;drawing accounts/ for the safe custody, and the receipt and payment of cash, not only with merchants and traders, but with all persons who choose to keep their money at a banker s and to draw cheques against it. The bank also takes charge of its customers bills of exchange, Exchequer bills, and other securities, and does all that is needful either in the collection of bills of exchange, the exchange of Exchequer bills, the receipt of dividends, and so forth, free of any charge. Plate chests, and deed and security boxes, may be deposited free of expense, by customers, for safe custody. The bank looks to the average balance of cash on each account to compensate for the trouble and expense of keeping it, and in this respect the requirements of the bank are certainly not greater than those of ordinary bankers. No particular sum is required to be lodged on opening an account ; it is only necessary that the party should be known as respectable, and in a condition to require a banking account. But the bank receives and holds sums of money for safe custody fur parties who have no current accounts. The following are the regulations under which accounts are conducted:—

1em 1em 1em

Paid in by 12 o clock may be drawn for after 1. Do. 2 o clock ,, ,, after 3. &amp;lt; 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em

Scotch Banks.

The Act of 1708, preventing more than six individuals from entering into a partnership for carrying on the busi ness of banking, did not extend to Scotland. In conse quence of this exemption, several banking companies, with numerous bodies of partners, have existed, for a lengthened period, in that part of the empire. The Bank of Scotland was projected by Mr John Holland, merchant, of London, and was established by Act of the Scotch Parliament (Will. III., Parl. 1, 5) in 1G95, by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scot land. Its original capital was 1,200,000 Scotch, or 100,000 sterling, distributed in shares of 1000 Scotch, or 83, 6s. 8d. sterling, each. The Act exempted the capital of the bank from all public burdens, and gave it the exclusive privilege of banking in Scotland for twenty-one years. The objects for which the bank was instituted, and its mode of management, were intended to be, and have been, in most respects, similar to those of the Bank of England. The responsibility of the shareholders is limited to the amount of their shares. The capital of the bank was increased to 200,000 in 1774, and was enlarged by subsequent Acts of Parliament, the last of which (44 Geo. III. c. 23) was passed in 1804, to 1,500,000, its present amount. Of this sum 1,000,000 has been paid up. The last-mentioned Act directed that all sums relating to the affairs of the bank should henceforth be rated in sterling money ; that the former mode of dividing bank stock by shares should be discontinued ; and that, for the future, it should be transferable in sums or parcels of any amount. On the union of the two kingdoms in 1707, the Bank of Scotland undertook the recoinage, and effected the exchange of the currency in Scotland. It was also the organ of Government in the issue of the new silver coinage in 1817. The Bank of Scotland is the only Scotch bank consti tuted by Act of Parliament. It began to establish branches in 1696, and issued notes for one pound as early as 1704. The bank also began, at a very early period, to receive deposits on interest, and to grant credit on cash accounts, a minute of the directors with respect to the mode of keeping the latter being dated as far back as 1729. It is, therefore, entitled to the credit of having introduced and set on foot the distinctive principles of the Scotch banking system, which, whatever may be its defects, is perhaps superior to most other systems hitherto established. Gene rally speaking, the Bank of Scotland has been cautiously and skilfully conducted ; and there can be no doubt that it has been productive, both directly and as an example to other banking establishments, of much public utility and advantage. It may be worth mentioning, that the Act of Will. III. establishing the Bank of Scotland, declared that all foreigners who became partners in the bank should by doing so become, to all intents and purposes, naturalised Scotchmen. After being for a long time forgotten, this 