The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-24 00:00:00

THE BANK OF HAMBURG.

HAMBURG, OcT. 21',„.:
It would perhaps be hardly fair to ascribe the
great scarcity of money to that respectable old
lady the Giro-Bank of Hamburg, but there can be
no doubt that she is a consenting party, and there"
fore has to bear some portion of the blame. Your
readers will hardly believe it that in these go-
ahead
days, when you can communicate with the whole
of Europe in an hour or two by the electric tele-
graph, and get letters from India and America in
an incredibly short space of time, the Bank of
Hamburg has taken no steps whatever to keep
pace with the spirit of the age, but goes on in the
same old jog-trot way that was no doubt equal to
the limited requirements of the day, when the
bank was first established nearly two hundred,
years ago, but are not adapted to give genera'
satisfaction in the present day.
The two new banks lately started (the Verein!
Bank and the North German Bank), and which
are under the direction of some of the most pole'
tical men and extensive merchants of this Exchange
appear to be fully alive to the requirements of the
age, and vie with each other in honourable rivalry
wich of them shall offer to their customers the
greatest facilities to induce the public to open se;
count with them. Thus they have just caused'
to be published that parties paying in bills On
either of the new banks, or on the old Giro-Bank
of Hamburg, can receive the amount the same d.gi
that they fall due and are paid. Your commerels•
readers who are aware, from experience, how often
a dozen or more different people are interested in
the payment of one single bill, and know hey(
money circulates in a few hours, will be able tl
appreciate the importance of this measure, and
consider it a great improvement on the old systems.
It might rationally have been expected that our
old Giro-Bank, finding itself placed in competition.
with the two young and rival establishments, both
of them qualified in point of capital, clever re.
nagement, and experience in business, to obtain
the confidence and win the favour of the public,
would have taken a similar step, and offered a lik
facility, if only for self-defence, and I fear I may
add self preservation. Clogged with the cumbrous
machinery of former ages, the old bank cannot,
however, feel induced to depart from usages he'
lowed by custom from time immemorial, but ac-
cording to our modern ideas, more honoured in the
breach than the observance. Thus it still takes a
whole fortnight for them to do what their young
competitors accomplish in a few hours :—for taking,
the above case as a fact, and assuming that a down
different people are directly interested in, and are
waiting
for the payment of a single bill, the result
is money falls due and is paid to A on the
Monday ; A cannot pay the amount to B on the
same day, but only on the Tuesday ; B pays it t 0
C on Wednesday ; C to D on Thursday ; and thug
the last has to wait till the very end of the foliose
ing week for the payment of a sum which, by
little energy on the part of the bank, he might
have had a fortnight earlier ; and, be it observed,
this mode of doing business would have the effect
of increasing the amount of the circulating mediums
to a twelvefold degree, and had it been acted upon
in the present scarcity of money, we should pre'
bably have never seen the rate of discount rise ill
this market to ton and twelve per cent.
I do not wish to say anything harsh or cutting,
to the old-fashioned managers of the old-fashioned
bank, but I cannot help quoting for their benefit
the memorable words of Mr. Canning—" Those
who resist indiscriminately all improvement
because they are innovations, may find themselves
compelled at last to submit to innovations which
are not improvements."—Daily News.