

SOCIAL ECONOMICS OF THE INDUSTRIAL 



ORDERS. 



IT is surely a deplorable feature in the condition 

 of a large portion of the working-classes in this 

 country, that they have little or no provision made 

 against the necessities which arise to themselves 

 or their families in the event of sickness, failure 

 of employment, or death. With some, this is not 

 the case, but it is the case with many ; and the 

 result is, that these persons have never more than 

 a thin partition separating them from the realms 

 of want and dependence. The effect which this 

 is calculated to have, need not be largely insisted 

 on, for want and dependence are universally 

 allowed to be productive of many evils. What is 

 there to be expected from the moral nature oi 

 one who is every now and then obliged, perhaps, 

 to ask for gratuitous medicine and medical attend- 

 ance to take bread from a parish officer or the 

 managers of a charitable subscription to trust 

 to the pity of neighbours whenever anything 

 like an exigency arises in his family in short, 

 is, for the supply of a great part of his needs, a 

 stipendiary upon his fellow-creatures? These 

 things are evidently irreconcilable with true 

 manly dignity, with political independence, and 

 with an upright bearing in any of the relations 

 of life. 



'But then the working-classes realise such 

 small gains, that they can spare nothing for this 

 purpose.' This may well be doubted, for such 

 has been the gradual and steady rise in the 

 money-rate of operatives' wages, within the last 

 few years, even in the face of the reduction that 

 has been made in the hours of labour, that the 

 industrious man perhaps never before knew a 

 period in which, if he could only be temperate and 

 frugal, he might more easily save money. Yet 

 it has frequently been found that skilled arti- 

 sans and factory operatives earning from 303. to 

 405. per week, do not, as a class, maintain their 

 households or educate their children so well as 

 those labourers earning from 153. to 1 8s. per week. 

 The various savings-banks returns shew that the 

 classes of working-people receiving most wages 

 are the smallest depositors in the various kinds of 

 savings-banks, and that the majority of depositors 

 are persons in the receipt of low wages, such as 

 farm-labourers, domestic servants, and the like. 

 Such facts and we believe many of the like 

 nature might be readily adduced seem to prove 

 that the working-classes have much more in their 

 power for the promotion of their physical and 

 moral well-being than is generally supposed. 



Those artisans and other members of the 

 labouring-classes who desire to make the most 

 of their limited means, to regularly put aside a 

 portion, however small, of their earnings, with 

 the view of maintaining their independence, 

 or enabling them to face successfully seasons 

 of adversity, will find many facilities afforded 

 them for so doing. Among the foremost of 

 these is 



85 



THE SAVINGS-BANK. 



Previous to the commencement of the present 

 century, such of the humbler classes as were 

 given to saving had no proper place of deposit 

 for their spare funds, which they were obliged, 

 therefore, to keep in an unfructifying hoard in 

 their own possession, exposed to the risk of loss, 

 or to consign to some neighbour, who, though 

 deemed safe, might turn out to be much the 

 reverse. At the same time, in the want of a 

 proper place for the deposit of spare money, those 

 who might save, but did not, lacked one import- 

 ant requisite to their doing so. About the begin- 

 ning of this century, it occurred to some benevo- 

 lent minds that an important benefit would be 

 conferred on these classes if there were institu- 

 tions of the character of banks, but on a modest 

 scale, in which the poor could deposit the smallest 

 sums they could from time to time spare, certain 

 of being able to draw them forth when they 

 pleased, with accumulated interest. Savings- 

 banks so named from their main object were 

 accordingly established almost simultaneously in 

 Britain, the United States, France, and other 

 countries. They were generally conducted by 

 associations of benevolent persons, who gave the 

 security of their own credit for the accumulated 

 sums, and held forth every temptation in the way 

 of liberal interest, courtesy, and promptitude in 

 management, to induce the working-classes to 

 resort to them. The oldest of the English savings- 

 banks is that at Bristol, which was established in 

 1812. 



For some years, this joint-stock, but still private, 

 security was found to be sufficient for the pur- 

 pose ; but when it was understood that millions 

 lad found their way into savings-banks, it became 

 apparent that something else was necessary in 

 order to maintain the confidence which had at 

 first been felt. The government was therefore 

 nduced to frame a variety of statutes for the 

 jetter regulation of savings-banks, and one in 

 >articular by which its own security was given 

 or the safe keeping of the deposits. This was 

 done under the guidance of the best intentions 

 towards the industrious classes, who generally 

 are depositors in savings-banks, and with as 

 ittle interference as possible with private and 

 ocal management. A substantial benefit was 

 at the same time conferred, by the fixing of a rate 

 of interest somewhat above the average of what 

 could be expected in a country under the par- 

 ticular circumstances of the United Kingdom with 

 regard to capital. 



In 1863 the various laws relative to savings- 

 janks were amended and consolidated, with the 

 view of more clearly defining the duties and re- 

 sponsibilities of the various officials connected 

 with these institutions. As the law now stands, 



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