The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-06 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM Taft MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES.—In the course of the day it was stated in the city,
that the highly respectable firm of Messrs. Ladbroken and Co.
had determined to wind up their affairs, not from any embar-
rassment; but merely from a desire of retiring from business.
This statement was confirmed, after the close of business, by
the following.circular, which was distributed among a few of the
more immediate friends of the firm, and will be in general cir-
'culation on Monday :
" Bank-buildings, London, July 3, 1841.
" Sir,—Mr. Felix Ladbroke, of our firm, being desirous of
retiring from business, we have come to the determination of
settling all our engagement's. With this view we are prepared
'forthwith to pay your balance; or if it should suit your conve-
nience, to transfer it to our friends, Messrs. Glyn and Co., who
will conduct your account -on._ the same footing as hereto-
fore. Your concurrence in the latter arrangement will add to
the many obligations we have hitherto received at your hands.
s. Waiting your orders, we are," &c.
The other country banks, which besides Messrs. Daintry,
of Manchester, used to draw upon Messrs. Whitmore, have re-
moved their agencies as follows :—Messrs. J. Fordham and
Co of Royston, to Messrs. Barclay and Co. ; Messrs. Johnson
and. Co., of . Romford, to Messrs. :Glyn and Co. ; and Mr.
Hart, of Uttoxter, to Messrs Williams and Co. It was at
first supposed in the city that the bank at Royston was the
only one besides Daintry's that had any connexion with
Whitmore s.
POST.—The official lists for the foreign house contain no
more than four quotations for the entire day,a further andmost
conclusive exemplification of the imisolicy of giving counte-
nance, as the Committee have allowed themselves to do, to
investments of an unsound and disreputable description.. At
no period within our recollection was the business of this de-
partment of the Stock 'Exchange at so low an ebb as it is it
the present time, and this without a prospect—we had almost
said without a hope or chance—of revival Mexican Brands
were quoted 27 to ; Active Spanish, with the overdue in-
terest, 21i to Five per Cent, Portuguese,Sle to ex. half
dividend,

HERALD.—Reports were current in the City that an old
and respectable banking firm had intimated its determination
to wind up its affairs and discontinue business. The tesolution
referred to it appears is not founded upon any deficiency in the
necessary means for carrying on money dealing as before,
but, as it would rather seem, from the fact of the conside-
rable encroachment which the Joint-Stock Banks had made
upon the business of some of the private banks,
where the capitals, although quite adequate to the
extent of current transactions now or heretofore em-
barked in, were not of that overwhelming magnitude, as
in the case of various leading banks, as to bid defiance
to Joint-Stock Bank competition, so far as that might
presume for preference, on the ground alone of undoubted se-
curity to the public from the agglomeration of numerous pro-
prietaries and gigantic capitals. Assuming this supposed fallinc,
off in the business of some of the private banks of unquestionable
repute otherwise, to be correct, people in the city are natu-
rally reminded of the seasonable project arranged some time
ago by Mr. Ward, a former director of the Bank of England,
but of which nothing more has been heard of late. It is ob-
served that the plan in question would have been an excellent
defensive combination against any invasion or curtailment of
the profits of the private banks by the joint stock associations,
or rather that the union of private bankers in one grand
association of proprietors and capitals, which was the
leading- principle of Mr. Ward's project, would have placed
them jointly beyond the reach of other joint-stock bank com-
petition, and therefore have tended to swell profits and multiply
busines., instead of, as now, in their isolated position, having
singly to maintain a disproportionate contest for the retention
of customary traffic, the increase of which may hardly be hoped
for perhaps, under the circumstances, against mighty capitalist
private and joint-stock banks. The realisation of such a scheme
would appear to be yet both practicable and advantageous,
although much longer delayed the opportunity would be for
ever lost. There are several old and respectable banking
names, both in the City and West-end, whose junc-
tion . and fusion into one grand banking proprietary
firm, with a principal establishment each east and west, and the
directory composed front among themselves, and comprising
men, therefore, of the greatest practical experience, would carry
with it an unsurpassable, perhaps unapproachable, degree of
public confidence, and therefore a suitable participation in the
great total of banking business and profits. From the tenor of
City remarks and reasoning on the subject, of which the fore-
going enumeration of.leading points may be regarded as a brief
but faithful analysis, it Is plain the public mind is prepared and
favourable to such an undertaking, by which many respectable
banking names, long and hereditarily known and esteemed,
Would be desirably perpetuated.