SAVINGS BANKS AXI) THE INVESTMENT OF THEIR CAPITAL 7I 



servants, and other persons in modest circumstances, but provident and 

 thrifty. Similar institutions soon followed in other cities of P'rance. As up 

 to 1835 there was no law for the regulation of these banks, there was great 

 variety in their constitutions. Some were limited liability societies, others 

 benevolent institutions, others were founded by municipal councils, others 

 grew out of branches of already existing institutes, notably pawn offices. 



The law of June 5th., 1835 provided that the establishment of Thrift 

 and Savings Banks must be authorised by Royal Order and that the deposits 

 must be placed in current account at the Treasur^^ These decrees are still 

 the pivots en which the more recent legislature turns. 



In 1829 there were only eleven batiks; in 1835 there were 159 with 

 55 branches ; in 1855 the number had risen to 386 with 171 branches, 

 and in 1881 there were 542 banks with 908 branches, and the number of 

 banks has, with but slight fluctuations, since then been stationary. 



Yet, notwithstanding this wide diffusion. Savings Banks have not fully 

 made their way among the more humble classes of society, those classes for 

 which in view of their unhappy and precarious economic condition, saving 

 and thrift are especially necessary. In 1861 England led the way in the 

 successful establishment of Postal Savings Banks and was successively 

 followed by Italy, Belgium, Canada and other states and France, by law 

 of April 9th., 1881, founded a National Savings Bank (Postal Banks), 

 administered b}^ the State and worked through the Post Offices. I^ater 

 on, the sphere of this Bank was extended to Algiers and Tunis and branches 

 were founded abroad, where the French already had post offices at 

 Alexandria, Port-Said, Tangiers etc. Thus, we see two very similar types 

 of Savings Banks, the older, the ordinary savings banks, working as 

 private institutions of public utility, A^et under State direction ; the 

 other, the Postal Savings Banks, real State institutions. 



It was however needful that by the law of July 20th., 1895, the rules 

 which had been successively established for the ordinary and postal banks 

 should be brought into accord with each other so that the sphere of 

 action of these institutions might be clearly defined. 



§ 3. Ordinary savings banks. 



The number of these banks, which in 1881 was 542 with 908 branches, 

 had risen in 1910 to 550 with 1,770 branches. It is seldom necessary now to 

 create new ones, because these banks have generally been instituted by the 

 Commune to supply a manifest need, and the existence of one in a commune 

 prevents the foundation of another in the same commune. Their sphere of 

 action is not, however, limited to their own district, for they may receive de- 

 posits from all who desire to transact business with them. Some of them 

 are under the real and unlimited control of the communal adminis- 

 trations, while others enjoy a semi-autonomy, but there are 107 completely 

 independent of municipal authority. They are all at liberty to establish 

 branches. 



