384 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



the "British Linen Company" did a banking business alongside, 

 or to Ihe exclusion of, their mining, mercantile and manufacturing 

 operations.^ 



The prevalent custom of country merchants assuming the banking 

 function was illustrated in divers businesses. Mansfield was a linen- 

 draper, Cuming a cloth dealer, Alexander a tobacconist, Coutts a corn 

 dealer, etc.- The first country bank was the Old Gloucester bank 

 founded by James Wood, a soap and tallow chandler.^ Another 

 great London banking firm owes its origin to one Smith, a Notting- 

 ham draper, who developed a local banking business, extending to 

 Preston, Hull, Lincoln, and finally London.^ The Liverpool bankers 

 were originally general merchants, tea-dealers, linen merchants, and 

 one was a watch and clock manufacturer.-^ The first country bank to 

 be regularly established as such was at Newcastle in ITSS.*^ 



In the light of their mercantile origin, it is apparent that the country 

 banks performed an important service for country industry and trade. 

 Their rise is one phase of the provincializing tendency of English com 

 mercial life after 1720. Their services consisted in the ordinary 

 ser\dces of commercial banks." They entertained business relations 

 wdth the London banks and transmitted and received specie. By 

 discounting bills in the industrial sections they suppHed capital. In 

 the rural parts they afforded loans for capitalistic agriculture. They 

 afforded accommodation to many classes, but particularly those en- 

 gaged in commerce. Their very close relation to the industrial and 

 commercial expansion was revealed during the Industrial Revolution, 

 in the first five decades of which the number of country banks rose 

 from twelve to nearly four hinidred. 



It was alleged in 1689 that the increase in the volume of money in 

 the two pre\dous decades had curtailed the practice of doing business 

 on time.^ At the same time it was also said that not one-tenth part 

 of the "moneys imployed at interest" were loans to trading people 

 for purposes of trade.'' Two decades later an observer opined that 

 credit was used in no other trading nations as it was in England and 



1 Phillips, Banks, 8; Rep. Com. of H. C, 1710. 



^ Bourne, Eng. Mer., 337. 



^ Ibid., m; Lawson, 150. 



^ Lawson, 151; Bourne, 2>c>i. 



"> Hughes, Liv. Bks., 38, 49-50. 



8 Lawson, 149. 



' See Thornton, ch. VII; Bisschop, Rise, 156-7. 



" "Discourse about Trade," pref., 4. 



"^ North, Discourse, 6-7. 



