And they significantly added " the personal accounts at the head office require a diligent and searching re
vision."The Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank, which was established in 1839, and stopped payments in 1855, appears to have been little, if at all, better than a mere swindling engine. Luckily it did not issue notes ; and -the sphere of its operations was not very extensive. But, so far as its influence went, nothing could be worse, being ruinous alike to the majority of its partners and to the public.
We have in the previous section on Scotch banks mentioned the fact of the establishment by the National Bank of Ireland of a head office and of several branches in London. This example has been so far followed by the Provincial Bank that it has also set up a head office in London, without, however, competing for general business in the metropolis. An addition was made to the number of Irish banks in 1864 by the establishment of the Munster Bank (Limited), having its head office in Cork. It has established upwards of 40 branches, and pays a dividend of 12 per cent, to its shareholders.
We borrow principally from Thom's Irish Almanac, the most valuable publication of its class, the following details with respect to the Irish banks in 1875:—
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Instituted. BAKU. No. of Branches. Subscribed Capital. Paid up Capital. Latest Divi dend per An num de clared. Reserve Fund and Balance after last Dividend. No. of Shares. Per Share. Amount. Per Share. Amount. 1783 1827 1824 j 1864 1835 1825 1824 1836 1836 Bank of Ireland (Dublin) 49 35 31 41 109 43 44 4 41 Stock. 5,000 5,000 20,000 100,000 50,000 5,000 5,000 ( 20,000 ( 4,000 30,000 100,000 100 100 100 100 10 50 92/6/2 100 100 10 50 10 2,769,230 500,000 500,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 2,500,000 461,538 500,000 | 2,040,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 100 25 25 25 31 30 30 30 |25 1 10 10 24 2,769,230 125,000 125,000 500,000 350,000 1,500,000 150,000 150,000 | 540,000 300,000 250,000 Per cent. 12 20 ) M 12 12 11 15 74 20 15 20 1,072,000 135,966 235,000 170,000 133,000 170,000 254,131 196. GCO 237,500 Belfast Bankin^ Company (Belfast) ,, ,, (New Shares).... Hibernian Joint-Stock Banking Company ) (Dublin) Alunster Bank, Limited (Cork) National Bank (London) Northern Bankin^ Company (Belfast) ,, ,, New Shares... Provincial Bank of Ireland (London) Royal Bank of Ireland (Dublin) Ulster Biiikius Company (Belfast).,
Bank of Amsterdam.
The Bank of Amsterdam was founded in 1609, on strictly commercial principles and views, and not to afford any assistance, or to intermeddle with the finances of the state. Amsterdam was then the great entrepot of the commerce of the world, and of course the coins of all Europe passed current in it. Many of them, however, were so worn and defaced as to reduce their general average value to about 9 per cent, less than their mint value ; and, in consequence, the new coins were immediately melted down and exported. The currency of the city was thus exposed to great fluctua tions; and it was chiefly to remedy this inconvenience and to fix the value or par of the current money of the country, that the merchants of Amsterdam established a " bank," on the model of that of Venice. Its first capital was formed of Spanish ducats or ducatoons, a silver coin which Spain had struck in the war with Holland, and with which the tide of commerce had enriched the country it was formed to overthrow. The bank afterwards accepted the coins of all countries, worn or new, at their intrinsic value, and made its own bank-money payable in standard coin of the country, of full weight, deducting a " brassage" for the expense of coinage, and giving a credit on its books, or " bank -money," for the deposits.
The Bank of Amsterdam professed not to lend out any part of the specie entrusted to its keeping, but to retain in its coffers all that was inscribed on its books. In 1672, when Louis XIV. penetrated to Utrecht, almost every one who had an account with the bank demanded his deposit, and these were paid off so readily that no suspicion could exist as to the fidelity of the administration. Many of the coins then brought forth bore marks of the conflagra tion which happened at the Hotel de Ville, soon after the establishment of the bank. This good faith was main tained till about the middle of last century, when the managers secretly lent part of their bullion to the East India Company and Government. The usual " oaths of office " were taken by a religious magistracy, or rather by the magistracy of a religious community, that all was safe ; and the good people of Holland believed, as an article of their creed, that every florin which circulated as bank- money had its metallic constituent in the treasury of the bank, sealed up, and secured by oaths, honesty, and good policy. This blind confidence was dissipated in December 1790, by a declaration that the bank would retain 10 per cent, of all deposits, and would return none of a less amount than 2500 florins.
Even this was submitted to and forgiven. But, four years afterwards, on the invasion of the French, the bank was obliged to declare that it had advanced to the States of Holland and West Friesland, and the East India Company, more than 10,500,000 florins, which sum it was, of course, unable to make up to the depositors, to whom } however, it assigned its claims on the states and the com pany. Bank-money, which previously bore an agio of 5 per cent, immediately fell to 16 per cent, below current money.
This epoch marked the fall of an institution which had long enjoyed an unlimited credit and had rendered the greatest services. The amount of treasure in the vaults of the bank, in 1775, was estimated by Mr Hope at 33,000,000 florins.[1]
The Bank of France.
Bank of England only, was originally founded in 1800, but was not placed on a solid and well-defined basis till 1806. Its capital, which was originally fixed at 45,000,000 fr., was raised in the last-mentioned year to 90,000,000 fr., divided into 90,000 shares or actions, of 1000 fr. each. Of these shares, 67,900 have passed into the hands of the public; the remaining 22,100, having been purchased up
by the bank out of its surplus profits, were subsequently- ↑ Storch. Cours d Economic Politiyue, torn. iv. p. 102.
