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pre-eminent position in regard to the relative magnitude of its resources the London Market has not fully maintained. The deposits of the metropolitan banks have indeed enormously increased. They amounted at the end of December, 1905, to £504,000,000; but in this total was comprised (as closely as can be estimated, since, owing to amalgamations, an exact comparison is impossible) about £230,000,000 held by banks which were not included in the statement for December 31, 1872, most of them banks with country branches, and which hold, therefore, a great deal of provincial as well as London money. Allowing for this, a greater relative increase is shown by the New York associated banks, whose deposits at the end of 1905 (including Government deposits) amounted to a little over £195,000,000 as compared with the £40,000,000 held by them in 1873. But, as in the case of the London banks, the deposits of the New York banks include a large amount consisting of the balances of other banks throughout the country. In Germany also there has been a great development of deposit banking. Unfortunately the German statistics are drawn up in a form which renders any comparison with those of the British banks exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. The German banks