Savings banks in England and Wales in the nineteenth century: a new insight into individual saving and spending

Citation

Perriton L & Maltby J (2012) Savings banks in England and Wales in the nineteenth century: a new insight into individual saving and spending. Business Archives, (105), pp. 47-64. http://public.bacs.daisy.websds.net/PDFFiles/Articles/105047.pdf

Abstract
First paragraph: Despite the ubiquitous presence of the savings bank in most high streets and towns in England and Wales throughout the last two centuries they have, until recently, attracted relatively little attention in terms of archive research. Much of the neglect of savings banks in terms of financial and economic history, as opposed to the history of social welfare, is a function of the ‘savings only’ model used in England and Wales, which funded interest payments to savers by purchasing government bonds.1 Where banks were set up on a savings and loans model (eg Sweden)2 they become part of the wider financial network and developing infrastructure into the 20th century, whereas a savings only model, with its limited ability to mirror or influence wider financial fluctuations and developments, has been seen as a footnote in economic history or a rather pedestrian aspect of early social welfare history.

Journal
Business Archives, Issue 105