and that the private deposits were only £17,127,000. Now the private deposits are about the same, and the circulation is £112,000,000.[1] So difficult is it in even a great country like France for the deposit system of banking to take root, and establish itself with the strength and vigour that it has in England.
The experience of Germany is the same. The accounts preceding the war in North Germany showed the circulation of the issuing banks to be £39,875,000, and the deposits to be £6,472,000, while the corresponding figures at the present moment are—circulation £60,000,000, and deposits £8,000,000.[2] It would be idle to multiply instances.
The reason why the use of bank paper commonly precedes the habit of making deposits in banks is very plain. It is a far easier habit to establish. In the issue of notes the banker, the person to be most benefited, can do something. He can pay away his own "promises" in loans, in wages, or in payment of debts. But in the getting of deposits he is passive. His issues depend on himself; his deposits on the favour of others. And to the public the change is far easier too. To collect a great mass of deposits with the same
