and 1828, both inclusive, the sum of 13,089,419. (4 Geo. IV. c. 22.) This annuity has, in due course of
time, expired.Formerly the business transacted at the bank was so much encumbered with forms and conditions, that the generality of merchants and ordinary people rarely thought of employing it to keep their money or make their pay ments. But in this respect an entire change has been effected. Cheques, the minimum amount of which was formerly 10, may now be drawn of any amount, great or small ; and all sorts of banking business is conducted with facility and despatch, and, it may be added, with perfect security.
The bank opens banking accounts, or, as they are called, "drawing accounts/ for the safe custody, and the receipt and payment of cash, not only with merchants and traders, but with all persons who choose to keep their money at a banker s and to draw cheques against it. The bank also takes charge of its customers bills of exchange, Exchequer bills, and other securities, and does all that is needful either in the collection of bills of exchange, the exchange of Exchequer bills, the receipt of dividends, and so forth, free of any charge. Plate chests, and deed and security boxes, may be deposited free of expense, by customers, for safe custody. The bank looks to the average balance of cash on each account to compensate for the trouble and expense of keeping it, and in this respect the requirements of the bank are certainly not greater than those of ordinary bankers. No particular sum is required to be lodged on opening an account ; it is only necessary that the party should be known as respectable, and in a condition to require a banking account. But the bank receives and holds sums of money for safe custody fur parties who have no current accounts.
The following are the regulations under which accounts are conducted:—
1. All letters should be addressed to the chief cashier.
2. It is desirable that drafts should be drawn upon cheques fur nished by the bank.
3. Cheques upon city bankers, eastward of King Street, Cheap- side,—
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Paid in by 12 o clock may be drawn for after 1. Do. 2 o clock ,, ,, after 3. <
4. Cheques paid in after 2, and before 3 o clock, and cheques upon all other London bankers paid in before 12 o clock, may be drawn for on the following morning.
5. Cheques paid in after 3 o clock are sent out at 9 the following morning, and may be drawn for as soon as received.
6. Dividend warrants are received at the drawing office until 4 o clock in the afternoon for all persons having accounts at the bank.
7. It is requested that notice be given at the drawing office of bills accepted payable at the bank, with the date of their maturity.
8. Persons keeping a drawing account with the bank (although not having a discount account) may tender bills for discount through the drawing office. Application for discounts or for advances on stock, Exchequer bills, &c., must be made before 2 o clock.
9. Bills of exchange and notes not paid when due, will be noted.
10. The bank will make purchases or sales of British or foreign securities upon an order in writing addressed to the chief cashier ; and dividends on stock may be received under powers of attorney granted to the cashiers of the bank.
11. Exchequer bills, bonds, railway debentures, or any other securities may be deposited, and the interest, when payable, will be received and placed to account.
12. Credits paid in to account are received without the bank-book, and are afterwards entered therein without the party claiming them.
13. Notes of country bankers, payable in London, are sent out the same day for payment if paid in before 3 o clock.
14. The pass-books should be left at the drawing office, at least once a month, to be written up.
15. Where post-bills are required, or a payment is to be made to any office of the bank by cheque on the Bank of England, the cheque must be presented at the office upon which it is drawn, and ex changed for an order on the post-bill office, or on the office at which the payment is to be made.
16. Cash-boxes taken in, contents unknown, for such parties as keep accounts at the bank.
17. A person having a drawing account may have a discount account ; but no person can have the latter without at the same time having the former. When a discount account is opened, the signatures of the parties are entered in a book kept for that purpose, and powers of attorney are granted empowering the persons named in them to act for their principals. Bills of exchange having more than 95 days to run are not eligible for discount.
N.B.—All changes in the residence of persons keeping cash at the bank are requested to be made known at the drawing office ; and it is particularly requested that no gratuities be ofi cred to the clerks of the banking offices, such gratuities being strictly forbidden.
Scotch Banks.
The Act of 1708, preventing more than six individuals from entering into a partnership for carrying on the busi ness of banking, did not extend to Scotland. In conse quence of this exemption, several banking companies, with numerous bodies of partners, have existed, for a lengthened period, in that part of the empire.
The Bank of Scotland was projected by Mr John Holland, merchant, of London, and was established by Act of the Scotch Parliament (Will. III., Parl. 1, 5) in 1G95, by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scot land. Its original capital was 1,200,000 Scotch, or 100,000 sterling, distributed in shares of 1000 Scotch, or 83, 6s. 8d. sterling, each. The Act exempted the capital of the bank from all public burdens, and gave it the exclusive privilege of banking in Scotland for twenty-one years. The objects for which the bank was instituted, and its mode of management, were intended to be, and have been, in most respects, similar to those of the Bank of England. The responsibility of the shareholders is limited to the amount of their shares. The capital of the bank was increased to 200,000 in 1774, and was enlarged by subsequent Acts of Parliament, the last of which (44 Geo. III. c. 23) was passed in 1804, to 1,500,000, its present amount.[1] Of this sum 1,000,000 has been paid up. The last-mentioned Act directed that all sums relating to the affairs of the bank should henceforth be rated in sterling money ; that the former mode of dividing bank stock by shares should be discontinued ; and that, for the future, it should be transferable in sums or parcels of any amount. On the union of the two kingdoms in 1707, the Bank of Scotland undertook the recoinage, and effected the exchange of the currency in Scotland. It was also the organ of Government in the issue of the new silver coinage in 1817.
The Bank of Scotland is the only Scotch bank consti tuted by Act of Parliament. It began to establish branches in 1696, and issued notes for one pound as early as 1704. The bank also began, at a very early period, to receive deposits on interest, and to grant credit on cash accounts, a minute of the directors with respect to the mode of keeping the latter being dated as far back as 1729. It is, therefore, entitled to the credit of having introduced and set on foot the distinctive principles of the Scotch banking system, which, whatever may be its defects, is perhaps superior to most other systems hitherto established. Gene rally speaking, the Bank of Scotland has been cautiously and skilfully conducted ; and there can be no doubt that it has been productive, both directly and as an example to other banking establishments, of much public utility and advantage.
establishing the Bank of Scotland, declared that all foreigners who became partners in the bank should by doing so become, to all intents and purposes, naturalised
Scotchmen. After being for a long time forgotten, this- ↑ Although the capital of the Bank of Scotland .remains, as stated in the text, a power, as yet unused, was conferred on the bank by a private Act passed in 1873 to raise its capital to 3,000,000.
