74 



SWEDEN - CREDIT 



§ 2, Ordinary savings banks. 



The first savings bank in Sweden was founded at Gothenburg in 1820. 

 In the following year the Savings Bank of vStockholm (Stockholms Stads 

 sparbank) was estabhshed, and during the following years of the same dec- 

 ade similar institutions arose in most of the provinces (Lan), except in the 

 north where there was nothing of the kind till towards the middle of the 

 last century. These banks reached their fullest development in the province 

 of Molmohus at the southern extremity of the peninsula, where the popul- 

 ation is most numerous (above 460,000 inhabitants) and most dense (about 

 91 per square kilometre in 1900) and where more than 80% of the area is 

 arable. In this Lan in 1850 there were 14 large savings-banks. 



The successive increase in these institutions is shown by the following 

 figures giving the number of savings banks in both town and country at 

 the end of each decade from 1830 to 1910. 



Tabi,e I. — Number of Ordinary Savings Banks in Sweden (1830-1910). 



From 1820 to 1910, savings banks to the number of 521 were estab- 

 lished, of which number 436 (83.68 %) still existed on December 31*^., 1910, 

 which is a high percentage. 



The greater number of savings banks in country districts is explained 

 by the tendency of the rural population to remain independent of the cities. 

 They are not so nimierous in the cities where the density of the population 

 might seem to require them, because of the competition of ordinary bank- 

 ing establishments, wliich find it especially convenient in the cities to collect 

 savings. Nevertheless in 1910, twenty-six urban savings banks had 

 388 branches in the country. 



In the northern provinces, owing to the sparse population, the pro- 

 gress of these institutions has been much checked. 



But with increased facilities for communication and the growing wealth 

 of the lower and middle classes, the proportion of savings banks to the 

 population has increased. In 1830 there was a savings bank for every 

 115,523 inhabitants, in 1850 one for every 40,495, in 1880 one for ever}'- 

 13,007 and in 1910, one for every 12.666. If we include the 416 bran- 

 ches, there is now one bank for every 6,481 inhabitants. 



We must now describe the origin of these banks, their economic and 

 legal nature and the rules by which they are governed. 



