vii.] INSTITUTE OF BANKERS. 223 



London Directory, 1677. Sir Josiah Child, although he 

 subsequently became a banker himself, attacked our pro- 

 fession with more vigour than common sense in his new 

 Discourse of Tradz. He says, " This gaining scarcity 

 of money proceeds from the trade of bankering, which 

 obstructs circulation, advances usury, and renders it so 

 easy, that most men, as soon as they can make up a sum 

 of from 50 to 100 send it in to the goldsmith, which 

 doth and will occasion, while it lasts, that fatal pressing 

 necessity for money visible throughout the whole king- 

 dom both to prince and people." Sir Francis Child, called 

 by Pennant the father of the profession, is said to have 

 been the first to lay aside entirely the goldsmith's 

 business and become a pure banker in our sense of the 

 term. The " Grasshopper" in Lombard Street claims to 

 have been the place of business of Sir Thomas Gresham, 

 though his actual residence was in Bishopsgate. In the 

 Directory of 1677, it was occupied by Messrs. Duncombe 

 and Kent, from whom it descended to Messrs. Martin. 

 Hoare's in Fleet Street goes back to James Hore or 

 Hoare, who was "Warden of the Mint from 1679 to 

 1682, and who was probably established in business as 

 early as 1661. They have occupied their present pre- 

 mises since 1692. The Bank of England, I may men- 

 tion, was founded in 1694. 



Although banking, in some form or other, can, as we 

 have seen, be carried back to an early period in history, 

 and even in our own country has long existed, still, in 

 our national accounts, a very archaic system was pursued 

 until quite recently. It is, indeed, scarcely credible that 

 the old wooden " tallies " were only abolished by Mr. 

 Burke's Act, which was passed in 1782, but did not 



