BANK: BAXKKH; HANK 



BANK NOTK MANIT.u Tritr.. 



: 



b* held. the party so reducing It it obliged to purchi 

 th other*, and to give * draft on London for the an, 



The country circulation of Ireland U regulated in this manner, under 

 the Act of 1843. There U a certain amount limited in ttu- Act, to 

 which each bank of iue may inue note* ; all lime* of notoi beyond 

 ^Vt muit be made against a coireaponduijt value f bullion. The 

 objection agailut making the Bank of Ew?l.uid not* a legal tender in 

 Ireland u that, o far u Ireland i- i u.-.-in.d. Mich ]><>rtii>n of the 

 currency an might be con-ti-ut., I ..i Rink nf England notw would U- 



g I' i. 1 ; 



some branch In Ireland .it which gold should 1-c payable for the notes 

 on demand. 



All the bank* of issue in Ireland issue notee under 5/. each. The 

 Bank of Ireland issues If. note* and 91. notes; but the circulation of 

 y. not** i* not considerable. Borne of the other issuing bonks issue 

 2/. noU aa well a* U note*. Previously to the failure nf the Tipperary 

 Joint-stock Bank, in 1855, all panics or runs upon banks had been 

 observed to originate with the holders of the small notes ; but since 

 that bank, which was a bank of deposit only. stopped payment, runs 

 hare commenced with the depositors. The panic of 1857, wit: 

 tended all over the country, was to the greatest extent among the 

 depositors. 



The joint-stock banks are four in Dublin (some of these having 

 branches extending over every part of the country), and three hi the 

 country. The Bank of Ireland is the only chartered bank, and has 

 twenty-six branches. The joint stock banks all allow interest on 

 deposits, there being a general understanding that one shall not allow 

 a higher rate than another, the deposits being partly held on call and 

 in part on notice. The Bank of Ireland allows no interest on deposits. 

 The joint-stock banks of Ireland are not obliged to publish periodical 

 statements, showing the amount of their deposits. Usually the number 

 of shareholders hi an Irish joint-stock bank is very considerable, some 

 of them being wealthy persons, but the greater number of them are 

 represented to be widows, clergymen, and persona who have small 

 sums, and are dependent on the incomes arising from them. The 

 same change in the practice of opening accounts with a banker which 

 has been mentioned as having been so widely manifested in England of 

 late years, has also been observed in Ireland, and has caused large 

 accumulations of deposits hi the hands of the joint-stock bankers, and 

 banking operations have very much increased accordingly, c Evidence 

 before Committee,' *c., 1858, pp. 204-287.) The law in Ireland, founded 

 on a statute of the Irish parliament, is understood to prohibit private 

 bankers (that is, bankers other than joint-stock banker*) from paving 

 interest on deposit*. (Ik. Q. 5805.) 



V. Seotch tyitcm of Bankiwi. There are three incorporated public 

 banks in Scotland : one of these, called the Bank of Scotland, was 

 established by act of the Scottish parliament in 1695 ; another, called 

 the ltuy.il Bonk of Scotland, received a royal charter in 17:27 ; and the 

 third, the British Linen Company, was Incorporated in 1746, for the 

 purpose of undertaking the manufacture of linen, but now operates aa 

 a banking company only ; its capital is 500,000/. None of the Scotch 

 banks have exclusive privileges resembling those of the Bank of 

 England and Bank of Ireland. 



The capital of the Bank of Scotland was originally 1,200,000?. Scots, 

 or 100.000/. sterling money, divided into 1200 shares. This capital has 

 since been augmented at different times, and now amounts to 1,500,000/. 

 sterling, but of this sum only one million bos been paid up by the 

 subscribers. This bank began to establish branches in 1696, and issued 

 notes for It. each, in 1704. It also began very early to receh v , 

 for which it allowed interest; and In 1729 it introduced the plan of 

 granting credit* on cash accounts, which now forms a principal feature 

 of the Scotch banking system. 



The nature of these cash accounts consists in the Bank giving credit 

 on loan, to the extent of a sum agreed upon, to any individual r 

 house of business that can procure two or more persons, of undoubted 

 credit and property, to become surety for the repayment, on demand, 

 of the MIIII credited, with int. T. (. When a person has obtained this 

 credit, he may employ the amount in lii Imxiness, paying interest only 

 upon the Hum which he actually uses, and having interest allowed to 

 him from the day of repaying any part of the loan. These loans are 

 advanced in the notes of the Bank, whose advantage from the system 

 consist* in the call which these credit* produce for the issue of their 

 paper, and from the opportunity which they afford for the p. 

 employment of part of their deposits. In order to render this part of 

 their businesi as advantageous and secure as possible, it is necessary 

 that the credits should be frequently operated upon; and if the 

 managers of the Bank find that they are used as dead loans to produce 

 Interest only, or that the operations of the borrower ore infn ,,< 

 that the amount of notes called for in inconsiderable during the year. 

 they will ipeedily put an end to the credit, it being to the Interest of 

 the Bank to keep up an active circulation of its notes. 



These cash account* are found to bo very advantageous to 

 by supplying an additional capital, for the use of which they ] 

 in proportion to the amount of it which they employ; but tl 

 not so generally lued now as they were some time ago; the majority 

 of them are probably for sum* tinder 1000/. each. 



The management of the Bunk of Scotland is vested in a governor, 

 drj.uly .governor, twelve ordinary nd twelve extraordinary ];. 



They are chosen every year by the stockholders having 26W. of stock or 

 upwards. The management of the various branches, which are opened 

 in all the principal towns in Scotland, U confided to cashier* or agent*. 



The Royal Bank of Scotland had at first a capital of 160,0o</., which 

 has sinee been increased to l.OOO.iidii/. ThcM- new adopted 



by this e*Ubii*hment, and by tin- liritish i any, is the same 



as that of the Bank of Scotland, which has already been described. 

 These three banks are incorporated with limited liability. 



The statute of 1845 (8 & Viet. c. 88), containing provisions analo- 

 gous to those of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which regulated the 

 issues of the note-Issuing bank* of England, regulates the Scotch paper 

 circulation. The average of the gold circulation for 8 years previous 

 to 1840 was under 400,OOW. ; since then the average gold 

 ha* been always above 1,000,0001. Of the paper circulation 

 nearly two-thirds usually consists of notes under &/. The total autho- 

 rised not* fin-illation ls about 8,000,0001 ; and for all that the bank* 

 issue above that sum they are obliged to hold sovereigns. The bank* 

 are considered not to be so strongly in favour of a continuance of the 

 If. note circulation as they were in 1826. There appear to be no banks 

 in Scotland which are not banks of issue. 



Besides the system of cash accounts, a principal point in the Scotch 

 banking system is the maintenance at all times of large reserves in 

 government securities, or in cash; and particularly that there h. nl.l 

 always be a large reserve in London, where, in jwrint of fact, all the 

 large claims upon the Scotch banks are finally liquidated. Tip 

 bonks regard as a proper reserve, a sum equal to about one-fourth or 

 one-third of their liabilities on their notes and deposits. The Scotch 

 banks allow a moderate rate of interest (2, 8, or 84 per cent) upon 

 money deposited with them, whether upon what are called deposit 

 receipts or on current accounts ; in 1868, it was 2 per cent The 

 Interest they charge on cash credits, or overdrawn accounts, has been 

 6J or 7 per cent, in times of pressure; at present (1869) it is much 

 lower, and is usually about 5 per cent Since 1846 they have charged 

 in addition one-half per cent commission. Many of the depositors 

 lodge their money permanently as an investment. When a deposit 

 account is opened, a receipt for the amount is given to the dep 

 if he wishes to remove it, on his presenting the receipt, the deposit 

 in returned ; or he can pay in again a portion of the sum, if he does 

 not require the whole, when a fresh receipt for such portion is 1 

 to him. The system of deposits removeable at a notice, the interest 

 paid being of course higher, has not succeeded in Scotland!. 



Banking has for a considerable period been carried on more largely, 

 and the habit of keeping an account with a banker is incomparably 

 more general, in Scotland than in England. In 1847 it was estimated 

 that the total of deposits in the Scotch banks was not less than 

 30,000,0001 ; in 1858, several witnesses before the Committee on 

 Banking spoke of the probable amount as not less than C0,000,000/. 

 Of late years there has been a great increase in the number of 1 

 banks (no new banks have been erected since 1845); and the aggregate 

 of the banks, including branches, is larger than the aggregate of bank* 

 and branches in England. To a considerable extent there prevails a 

 desire amongst Scotch bankers that the Bank of England note should 

 be made a legal tender in Scotland. (' Evid. before Committee,' Ac. 

 1858. Q. 8197-8199.) 



(The works consulted in the preparation of the foregoing article were 

 the following : Smith's IHrt. nf ii'iiet and Roman Antiquitit* ; Adam's 

 Roman Aittiijuitirs ; Oilbart's Logic of Jianl-iny ; Porter's Progreu nf lAe 

 : LaWHon's Iliitnrii nf liuiilintj ; Tht Bantent Magtuint : Tht 

 r brfvre the Committee on Bank of i'n-jiand Ofinrter A< 

 1868; and others.) 



BANK NOTK MAMTAcrrHK. Considerable mechanical inge- 

 nuity has been shown in devising the beet modes of manufacturing bank 

 notes, to ensure that they shall lie light, durable, and not easily imitated 

 by forgers. The making of the paper, the engraving of the stec! 

 and the numbering of the notes, have all called forth this ingenuity. 



Many of the banks in the United States have adopted the use of a 

 peculiar kind of paper made expressly for bank notes. There are intro- 

 duced into the body of the piece of paper for each note as many > 

 threads as will show the value of the note in dollars, up to" certain 

 or nt least, that a definite number of threads shall represent 

 a definite value in the note ; so that no chemical or mechanical tamper- 

 ing with the printed part of the note will prevent the paper from 

 revealing the true original value. 



In respect to the plates from which bank notes are printed, they 

 used formerly to be formed of copper ; but as this material soon wears 

 away, a mode of using steel plates was devised by Messrs. Perkins and 

 Heath, by which a surprising number of copies may be taken. A 

 i thick plate of steel is softened on the itpjier side ; the device 

 U engraved on this softened surface; the block is hardened by a 

 very careful process after the engraving: the device is 

 by intense pressure, from the hardcm-d block to the convex surface 

 of a small soft steel roller: the roller is hardened, and the device is 

 transferred from it to any number of softened steel plates; and 

 these plates ore hardened after tli. then in a state to 



In- printed from. By this beautiful train of in- originally 



engraved block Is made to suffice for an almost endless mini) 

 ugs. 



The mode in which the writing, the emblems, and the ornament* 



