The Rise and Fall of the Private Bankers

It has been said—not perhaps without some reason—that English banks are loved by none but respected by all. A study in social psychology might possibly reveal why a banker’s charges are often more strongly resented than those of a solicitor or an estate agent; but the reasons for the respect in which banks are held are sufficiently clear. The banks are strong, and their credit is unquestioned; the failure of one of the big banks today is inconceivable. How they gained their strength, and within how recent a period, is a matter of record; yet, despite the banks’ own pride in it, the history of banking in this country is a little known and specialist study. An important aspect is the story of the private bankers, the men who founded banking in England—almost, one is tempted to say, discovered it—and nurtured it through its earlier phases, to see it pass eventually into other keeping.