the Bank of England
since 1844 is held in the tills of the banks in England and Wales, and that
the active note circulation of the United Kingdom is but little larger than
it was.

It may be added that the government received from the note circulation for
a typical year (ending 5th of April 1904), out of the profits of issue
(Bank of England) L184,930, 2s. 2d., and also composition for the duties on
the bills and notes of the banks of England and Ireland and of country
bankers, L120,768, 18s. 6d.

In 1906 the banking business of England was carried on practically by about
ten private and sixty joint-stock banks of which more than one was properly
a private firm under a joint-stock form of organization. Though the number
of individual banks had diminished, the offices had greatly increased.

The records of the numbers of banks in the United Kingdom have up to quite
recent years been very imperfect. Such as exist were made by individual
observers. The banks of England and Wales are believed to have been 350 in
number in 1792. Those registered from 1826 to 1842 were:--

[v.03 p.0339] /* Private. Joint-stock. 1826 554 ... 1827 465 6 1833 416
35 1842 311 118 */

The number of banking offices in England and Wales was estimated by Mr.
William Leatham in 1840 as being 697. The _Banking Almanac_ for 1845 gives
the number in 1844 for England and Wales as 336 private bank offices and
640 joint-stock offices, Scotland 368 offices, Ireland 180 offices.

The number of inhabitants to each office was as follows in 1844 and 1906:--

+-------------------+-------------+----------------+
| | Number of | Number of |
| | Banking | Inhabitants to |
| | Offices. | Each Office. |
+-------------------+------+------+---------+------+
| | 1844.| 1906.| 1844. | 1906.|
| England and Wales | 976 | 5527 | 16,305 | 5885 |
| Isle of Man | ... | 23 | ... | 2417 |
| Scotland | 368 | 1180 | 7,120 | 3790 |
| Ireland | 180 | 777 | 45,417 | 5738 |
+-------------------+------+------+---------+------+
| In United Kingdom | 1524 | 7507 | 17,526 | 5530 |
+-------------------+------+------+---------+------+

In the latter years of the 18th century and the early years of the 19th,
the note circulation was a very important part of the business, but about
that date the deposits began to be, as they h