tiable securities, they had in some cases engaged in speculative
underwritings and had locked up their funds in enterprises requiring a long
time for their consummation.

It was these combined influences which led to distrust of the Knickerbocker
Trust Company, and to the runs upon that company and others during the late
days of October and early November. The result was to reduce the total
resources of the forty-eight trust companies of Greater New York from
$1,205,019,700 on the 22nd of August 1907 to $858,674,000 on the 19th of
December 1907. Individual deposits subject to cheque fell from $692,744,900
to $437,733,400. Such a reduction of resources within so short a time, most
of it being accomplished within a few weeks, has hardly ever been recorded
in the history of banking, and the fact that the stronger companies were
able to call in their cash and meet such demands was evidence to a certain
extent that the criticisms upon them were exaggerated. The necessity for
stronger reserves and for greater safeguards against speculative operations
was so strongly impressed upon the public mind, however, that several
restrictive measures were enacted at the session of the New York
legislature in 1908, designed to prevent any abuses of this sort in the
future.

The function of issuing notes, which is exclusively a privilege of national
banks, has diminished in importance in America, as other methods of
transferring credit have attained a wide development. This has not only
been true of the national banks themselves, but has accounted for the
development alongside the national banking system of state banks, private
banks and trust companies, which have not had the privilege of note-issue,
but have obtained other privileges sometimes greater than those of the
national banks.

The aggregate resources of all classes of banks in the United States have
greatly increased in recent years. The following table shows the increase
in the chief items of the accounts of national banks for representative
years from the reports made nearest to the beginning of the year:--

PROGRESS OF NATIONAL BANKS, 1865-1908
+--------+----------+-------------------+-----------------+
| | No of | Loans and | Individual |
| Year. | Banks | Discounts. | Deposits |
+--------+----------+-------------------+-----------------+
| 1865 | 638 | $166,448,718 | $183,479,636 |
| 1870