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Savings bank depositors in a crisis: Glasgow 1847 and 1857

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2013

Duncan Ross
Duncan Ross*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Abstract

Savings banks were created as a means to encourage the newly created working class to save for the uncertainties of urban industrial life. This article explores the success of the Savings Bank of Glasgow, and pays particular attention to the response of savers to the financial and commercial crises of 1847 and 1857. The crisis of 1847 was shallower but longer lasting in Glasgow, while that of 1857 was greatly exacerbated by local conditions in the short term, but of little long-term importance to savers. It suggests that, in both crises, some elements of contagion may have been present but that those who panicked in 1857 were systematically different from those who did not.

Keywords

savings banksScotlandbanking crisesworking-class savings

JEL classification

N13: Europe: Pre-1913 G21: Banks • Depository Institutions • Micro Finance Institutions • Mortgages G1: General Financial Markets N23: Europe: Pre-1913
Type
Articles
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 183 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V. 2013 

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References

Sources

The primary sources on which this article is based are the records of the Savings Bank of Glasgow, TSB63 in the records of the Trustee Savings Bank Scotland. These records were held at the Glasgow University Archives (GUA) until shortly after the completion of this article, and they are cited as being located in Glasgow. They have, however, since been moved to the Lloyds TSB Group Archives, Edinburgh. I have not consulted the records in Edinburgh.

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